


It's a Long Way Home

by AJacobson



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Bisexual Steve Rogers, Dad Steve Rogers, Hydra, Jealous Bucky Barnes, Multi, Nightmares, Precious Peter Parker, Protective Bucky Barnes, Protective Steve Rogers, Protective Tony Stark, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Torture, WW2, dad bucky, dad tony stark, mom pepper
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-08
Updated: 2019-04-23
Packaged: 2019-06-07 02:11:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 28,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15208565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AJacobson/pseuds/AJacobson
Summary: It’s 1943 and Private First Class Peter Parker is going to war at the age of 15. His commanding officer is Sargent Barnes and they are headed directly to the front lines in Europe. Only after a couple months Peter and his squad are gearing up to take down a Hydra Facility 20 miles into enemy territory.Tony is slammed beyond belief not only does he have to deal with the fallout of Steve and most of the other Avengers leaving. But now Fury wants him and what’s left of the Avengers to hit an old Hydra facility that is rumored to house some super weapon that would be too dangerous to fall into anyone else's hands.





	1. Chapter 1

Prologue 

In retrospect Peter knew that it wasn’t a good idea to go to war. In fact, everyone he knew begged him not to go saying that it would most definitely mean death. Peter had to find out the hard way that there are fates worse than death. He went because they needed the money; his Aunt May and he were barley scraping by as is and they were still affected by the depression years earlier.

His aunt didn’t deserve to live in a rundown shitty apartment and to go hungry because Peter knew that she would skip all her meals if it meant that he could eat. Even if they could only afford to have a singular meal a day. He lived his whole life in the economic collapse, but he would do anything to make sure that his Aunt lived a better life. Especially after all that they had been through with Uncle Ben. 

Pearl Harbor happened and Peter was 12 and there had been nothing that he could do. Everyone was gearing up for a fight that Peter couldn’t be apart of because not only was he to young but he was often sickly. 

In September of 1942 after Perter had just turned 14 they announced that they would take boys that were 16 years or older provided that they had parental consent. Peter had known that this was going to be his only opportunity to enlist even if he had to fib a little on the enlist form. You see it had been common knowledge that an enlisted man could make 50 whole dollars a month for joining up. That could do wonders for May, she could afford to actually have regular meals! And with him gone then that would be one less thing for her to worry about as well. 

So Peter had gone down to the registers office and filled out his paperwork lying about his age and forging his Aunts signature. In truth it wasn’t all that hard, the hard part came next when he had to have a physical exam. Peter knew that he would be home free if he could just pretend to be a normal healthy 16-year-old in front of the physician.

He must have been pretty convincing or they were in desperate need of boys on the front lines. Peter likes to pretend that it was both, but if he hadn’t been such a good liar then maybe things wouldn’t have ended up the way they did and he would still be at home with his Aunt.

Peter remembers so clearly when he told his Aunt that he was going to war and she was less than thrilled. 

“You will die Peter; do you understand that?! Then I will have no one left and I will be all alone!” she had screamed at him. Peter wasn’t going to lie and say that hadn’t of stung because it hit to close to home. He then said something to her that he regrets even now.

“That’s not true May you still have family out there, I have had to watch every single parent figure die and you are all I have left. I am not going to sit here and watch you wither away to noting because you are giving up everything for me. If can make things a fraction of a bit better for you then I will” he had said sourly. 

“Peter I…” she said to him, “I’m not going to pretend to not understand how you feel because I do sweetheart. But going to war isn’t the only answer, I am sure that there is something that you can do that is here. Besides you are too young to go to war.”

“May it’s not just about the money. I can’t just sit here and do nothing when all those good men out there are dying. Not after Uncle Ben.”

May had started to sob and had pulled him in close to give him a hug and Peter even shed some tears of his own. He is glad now that he had held his Aunt close taking in all the comfort that he could while he still had it.

Peter had told his best friend Harry next and it didn’t go as well as he had hope it would. Harry never had understood Peters struggles; you see Harry was really well off. His dad owned the Osborn company which dealt in technologies. The company does really well second only to Stark Industries that manufactures most if not all the weapons and tech for the Allied forces.

Harry and Peter had become friends because they went to school together; whatever Peter lacked in physical strengthen he more than make up for it in knowledge. He was first in his class and only slightly behind him was Harry.

Basically when Peter told him that he was going to war, and had lied on the enlistment forms just so that he could get in, Harry was enraged. He told Peter that he would be killed immediately and that he wasn’t nearly old enough. He even went as far to tell Peter that if he decided to go through with it he would call the Military Police and tell them the truth about Peter. 

He begged and begged Harry to be on his side, he told him that his Aunt really needed the money. There was no life left for him here if his Aunt died because he couldn’t help her.

“Beside Harry,” he had said, “There are men laying down their lives, I got no right to do any less than them.” 

“Why can’t you work in a factory? There are so many important jobs Pete,” Harry told him exasperated. 

“You want me to pick up scraps in my little red wagon, come on Harry. I have got to do this, not just for my Aunt but for the people out there who are dying to stop the tyranny in Europe!” Peter had shot back.

“Can’t I just give you and your Aunt a little loan? I don’t want to lose you Peter,” Harry had asked as a last attempt to get him to stay. Peter just shook his head and patted Harry on the shoulder. 

 

\---------

Before he knew it Peter started his basic training and it was he own personal hell every single day. He would think about everything that Aunt May and Harry had said and he wondered if they had been right all along.

He was the slowest most of this time when his squad would run because his asthma would act up. He was so scrawny that he could barely keep up when they did push-ups and sit-ups or anything really physical. Honestly Peter wondered why they hadn’t kicked him out.

Peter remembers one night after a 5 mile run with his squad followed by a barbed wire crawl, he and his training squad had had been given some down time. It was a blessing and a curse for Peter, because he got to bathe but he had to be careful of all the other men around. 

Being his young self he was routinely the punching bag or the one to be picked on. Especially when it was his fault that they had to do extra work because he couldn’t keep up. This particular night Peter remembers that a couple guys from his squad must have gotten fed up with him making the do extra work because they had cornered him in the showers. 

Peter knows now that he should have seen it coming, he knows now that men will do brutal things when pushed to their limits. They grabbed Peter’s arms and as much as Peter tried to struggle he couldn’t get free. The men had repeatedly punched him in the gut. Peter remembered not being able to breathe through the pain exploding in and around his gut. 

There had been one swift punch to his face when it all stopped. Peter felt his body give out as he fell onto his knees. 

“What the fuck do you punks think you’re doing huh!?” a loud voice had broken through to Peter. Someone had tossed a towel at him to shield his nakedness, he wrapped it around his body thankful that someone came in to stop the beating.

“Sargent Barnes sir…” the man never really got to finished his sentence because the office was barking orders at them. One line stuck out in Peters head even now. 

“Why don’t you pick on someone your own size huh,” then he physically kicked the men out of the stalls. 

“You know kid, I literally said the same thing to a friend of mine a couple months ago. What’s your name son?” Peter got to his feet and with one hand holding his towel and with the other he saluted the officer.

“Private Frist Class Peter Parker Sir,” Peter said.

“Nice to meet you Parker, I am Sargent Barnes. But most people round here call be Bucky. Come on let’s get you clean up kid,” Bucky had told him. 

Even though he got the crap beat out of him, he was glad that it had lead him to his new friend. Bucky was about to save his skin multiple times. He would have gladly taken the beating if it meant that he got Bucky on his side.

That was how little Private Frist Class Peter Parker found himself in a new squad, the 107th, under direct command of Sargent James Buchanan Barnes shipping out to Italy at 15 years old in September 1943.


	2. The War Part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone!! Thank you so much for the feedback and love for the first chapter! Here is part two, we get to see a little bit of Bucky and Peter starting to enter the war. Let me know what you think!

“Hey Kid, whatcha reading? You’re not gonna join the other guys in the in the mess hall for the movie?” A large hand is placed on top of Peter’s head. He shakes his head and bounces the manual he had barrowed up and down on his leg.

“I’m, um, reading the user manual for the C- 47 Skytrain,” he picks up the reading material and shows it off to Bucky who is looking at him with a knowing grin.

“You understand that stuff?” he asks Peter who nods glancing back at the manual. 

“Well ain’t you a regular ol’ mini Stark,” Bucky takes a seat next to him.

“I wish! Howard Stark is a genius, I could only wish to be that smart someday,” Peter tells him.

“Don’t sell yourself short kid okay, you’re probably smarter than all us in Wolf Company,” Bucky nocks his shoulders against Peter and grins.

There is an awkward moment of silence, Bucky stares ahead looking at the rows and rows of empty bunks. All the other men in the Wolf Company are on standby waiting the orders to make the jump into enemy territory. There had been a sudden shift in weather making it impossible for any sort of landing by sea or air. 

Wolf Company of the 107th regiment is working closely with the airborne platoons in order to get a successful drop into the southern half of France in order to push into Nazi occupied Italy. 

“Nervous?” Bucky asks in a low voice. It is the unspoken rule of being a solider, don’t ask don’t tell about the fear that you may feel, suck it up and keep going.

Peter shrugs and fiddles with the dog eared pages of the manual that still rest on his knees. He feels a hand rest softly on his shoulder, letting Peter know that he isn’t the only one who fears the impending jump.

“Bucky can you tell me about your home? I know we lived pretty close but I’d like to hear about what life was like in Brooklyn again.” Peter asks after a moment.

“Sure thing kid,” Bucky kicked his legs out so that he could lay out on Peters bunk while Peter himself scoots so that he was sitting cross legged on the end of the bed, “What do you want to know about?”

“Well… who was your family, your friends, what did you like to do on the weekends?” Peter asked. 

“I had a Ma, she was amazing, she smelt like fresh air and flowers. Every Sunday after church got out she would take my best buddy Steve, my sister Becca, and me out for these little pastries on 2nd street. I can still taste the flaky sweetness of them.”

Peter always loved when Bucky would tell stories about his home life, it always made him feel less frightened or anxious about what was to come. Bucky first started to tell Peter stories about his life right after they had met. After Peter had gotten cornered in the showers and beaten so bad that he had bruises for weeks. Bucky had told Peter about his friend Steve who would always get into fights and Bucky would have to patch him up. That Peter reminded him a lot of his childhood friend.

“We never had much me and my family but Ma always made sure to splurge a little on those pastries. It always lifted our spirts and Steve would never eat all of his; I am positive it was because he wanted to take the other half home to his Ma. They were both sick a lot, she had passed right before the war broke out.” 

“So did my uncle,” Peter tells him in a small voice picking at frayed string on his bunk blanket.

“I’m sorry to hear that kid, wanna talk bout it?” Bucky asked. Peter shook his head and looked away. They shared another awkward silence, reminiscing about the ones that they lost. Bucky was the one to finally break the quiet that they had shared.

“Let’s go see if that picture they’re planning is any good,” he told Peter swinging his feet off the bed and onto the floor jumping up. Peter reluctantly fallowed Bucky out of the barracks and into the cool evening.

They had been in England for a couple of weeks now and Peter was just about used to the unpredictable weather patterns that seemed to happen more often than not. Sometimes it was really hot and muggy then three hours later it could be pouring down rain. It’s why they were stuck on the ground right now; because there is a big storm front that moved its way inland. They didn’t want to be caught in it while jumping into enemy territory with no bearings whatsoever. 

They reached the mess hall where some of the other commanding officers of Wolf Company had set up a movie for the men to watch to keep their minds off the impending jump they were going to make the fallowing evening. 

“Hey well look what the cat dragged in! Short-stack and Sour-puss!”, someone called out earning him a slew of verbal insults and hushes from the audience.

“Don’t you know how to keep your mouth shut Private Neal, people are trying to watch a movie,” Bucky said jokingly to the man as he and Peter took seats next to the man.

“Yeah Neal, sides nobody want to smell your foul breath,” Peter teased him. 

Neal was another guy in the 107th part of Wolf Company, he was a good guy that liked to joke around and generally brought a lot of laughs in a time when there weren’t any. He and Peter got along well just like the other men in the company. 

“That’s not what your dame was saying last night Parker,” Neal waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

“Oh really? You were with her then, that’s good she needs some new girlfriends,” Peter shot back and both Neal and Bucky cracked up laughing.

“Will you punks shut your yappers! I’m tryin to watch the movie!” some guy yelled back at them.

“Now there’s a fella who could use a dame,” Neal muttered. Bucky and Peter busted out laughing again.

\-------  
“Alright Gent! Listen up! Right now we are two hours out from those planes taking off and landing us right in the middle of hell! Everyone needs to grab their supplies and pack it up, got it? Even if you don’t think you’ll need it, pack it up, we don’t know what the area we are dropping into is going to be like, but be prepared to fight like hell!” Captain Davis shouts out to all the men gathered onto the tarmac.

Peter has all of his stuff laid out onto the tarmac just like the rest of the men around him. He has no idea how he is going to be able to carry everything and apparently he isn’t the only one as he hears other men around him complaining that all the equipment weighs more than they do. Regardless Peter packs all of his stuff into his bag, his pockets, his boots, hell he even tapped thing to his legs.

Neal wanders over and helps Peter get all of his equipment and essentials strapped tightly to his person, he also helps him attach his parachute and his reserve parachute. It’s so much weight that Peter feels like he might topple over any minute. Peter then helps Neal get all of his equipment squared away including both chutes.

“He kid,” Peter hears Bucky call out to him, he’s all ready to go and is carrying some sort of jar that looks like it has a green black tar inside of it. Bucky walks up to him and takes some of the inky looking stuff and spreads it all over Peters face.

“There, that’ll help camouflage you when we drop from the sky tonight,” Bucky then spreads some onto his own face and Neal takes some as well.

“Thank you sir,” Peter whispers to him.

The three of them walk over to where 2nd platoon Wolf Company 107th are stationed to meet before boarding the plane. All the men sit in two straight lines clutching their bags in front of themselves. 

No one says anything, Peter assumes its because they are all inside their own heads like he is at this moment. They sit and wait for the order to get onto the plane, they wait for that plane to drop them into a hell fire that many of them probably will not survive. 

Peter is afraid of dying but what he is more afraid of is what will happen to his Aunt when he does. She will never forgive him for making this decision even if he still thinks it was the right one. Peter isn’t afraid of losing himself to this war, he’s afraid of losing everyone that he has ever loved.

“Okay Privates! Don’t forget to sign your G.I. life insurance, don’t let your families miss out on 10,000 dollars’ boys. Go see Sargent Jamerson if you haven’t filled it out yet!” A voice says braking through some of Peters mental chatter.

Peter made sure to sign that life insurance already; that way if he died at least he knew without a doubt that Aunt May would be fine, at least financially. 

Lieutenant Winters had walked over to the platoon then, looking over some last minute forms before addressing us. A couple of guys walk down the rows of men handing out something.

“Orders state that each man must take one of these air sickness pills. One right now and one 30 minutes into the flight. Got it?” one of the officers who were passing out the pills said. There were a chorus of murmured yes and yeahs among the guys.

“Second Platoon listen up,” Lieutenant Winters said stuffing whatever paper work he had into one of his pockets, “Good Luck.”

“God Bless you. I’ll see you on the other side.” Winters finished by helping the first man up in line and looking him in the eyes.

He did this with all of the men almost like he was reassuring them that he would be right there with them. They were all in this together come hell or high water. When he got to Peter he gave him a small grin and a pat on Peters helmeted head. Oddly enough that small gesture made Peter feel a little bit better as he boards the C-47 Skytrain. 

Peter made his way to his seat on the plane, crammed in between Neal and another guy in 2nd platoon that he wasn’t too familiar with. Bucky sat right across to him, no one said anything just climbing into the plane then taking their seats. 

Some men passed around cigarettes, others tried to check their equipment to make sure that they had everything in place. But most men stared blankly at nothing each having a glazed expression on their faces as if what they were about to do was finally hitting them in full force. Peter started to panic then, terrified of what was going to come. He was sure that his face looked exactly like the other men around him, wide eye and terrified.

“Hey.”

Peter looks up to see Bucky staring at him and Peter knows he can see the look of pure terror on his face. Unable to look at him any longer Peter turns away.

“I got you back kid, okay.” Bucky tells him and Peter nods still terrified but feeling better, if only slightly.

“Yeah no worries short-stack we got you,” Neal says putting his arm around Peter which draws a smile from him. Looking back at Bucky he can see the seriousness in the words that Bucky spoke. Peter puts his hand out for Bucky to take, Peter shakes it and makes a promise.

“I got your back to Bucky,” he says.

Just then Peter feels the plane start to rumble underneath his feet as it takes off down the runway. It is strangely soothing as the plane rumbles to life then hurtles into the sky. He pulls on his straps to make sure that they are secure before leaning back into his seat with his head thrown back and his eyes closed. He knows that this might be the last time in a while in which he can rest easy for a couple of minutes. Peters knows that they most likely won’t come in contact with the enemy before they reach France. 

It feels like only a few moments that have passed since he closed his eyes when he feels the plane shutter. Peters eyes snap open meeting Bucky’s across the plane; he’s scared, is the first thing that comes to mind when Peter sees him. 

BOOM 

The plane shutters again but this time they take a nose dive fallowed by an upturn of the plane as the pilots try to avoid the shooting of the enemy forces on the beach. The red light up at the top of the plane lights up signaling that it’s time to get ready to jump.

Lieutenant Winters jumps to attention he motions for us not to panic.

“Stand up,” he says using is hand to motion us up.

“Hooks on!” he shouts over the bombings from the outside of the plane.

“Equipment check!” every man checks that they have all of their stuff and that everything that needs to be hooked is.

“Sound off!”

“10 ready,” someone from the back of the plane yells.

“9 ready!”

“8 ready!”

It went on like until Peter felt Bucky thump his back and call out, “Four ready!” Then Peter yelled his number, thumping the guy in front of him. Finally, the Lieutenant shouted, “One Ready!”

Now it was just a waiting game until the pilots hit the go ahead and the button turns green. Then they would jump out of the plane into the abyss that was bombs and bullets. Peter could just barely see the darkness that was the outside of the plane.

It reminded him of the 4th of July with the explosions happening all around them. It was so loud it hurt his ears and he no longer thought of the rumbling plane as soothing; now it was making him sick with dread.

There was a high pitch whine then all of a sudden the right side of the plane, where Peter knew the part of the engines were housed, exploded. Fire licked the sides of the plane, Peter knew that if they didn’t jump now they were done for; because, the side of the plane wouldn’t be the only thing on fire soon.

“They gotta let us go!” someone yelled.

“Does that light look green to you!” Winters yelled.

The door light suddenly turned green and the lieutenant yells out, ‘Go, Go, Go’, then jumped out of the door into the night sky. One by one everyone fallowed the lieutenant out of the door. Peter gets to the door and for a split second thinks he’s not going to be able to do this. But then he’s out the door and his chute is pulled.

All around him is explosions of light and noise that make crescendos in his ears. He hoping and praying to God that he’s not going to get hit by anything on his way down. Peter looks wildly around for any sign of Bucky or even Neal but he doesn’t see anything.

Just as fast as he jumped out of the plane he is landing hard on the ground. Like he was taught in basic training he gathers up all of his stuff and chute then wraps it in a ball. He then pulls off his reserve parachute and his life preserver. 

Peter is getting ready to make a run for it to find anyone he might recognize when he hears something in the distance.

“Pete! Peter!” someone is whisper shouting. Its Bucky, Peter can tell right away; Peter looks around to see if he can see his friend.

“Buc…,” Peter doesn’t finish because suddenly debris is dropping from the sky right where he’s standing. Peter manages to dodge most of it, but he isn’t so lucky when a pieces of whatever machinery drops and hits his helmet. Peters knees drop onto the muddy grass and his vision is blurry.

“Peter!” Bucky shouts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So what did you think? If anyone has seen band of brothers that is what this chapter is based off. I highly recommend if you like history of WW2.
> 
> But yeah if you liked this chapter and want more leave me a Kudo or a comment.
> 
> AJ


	3. The War Part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! Hope you guys are having a good day! Here is part three of my little story, it's a little short of a chapter compared to the last one but yeah. Peter and Bucky are headed into the war now and just a heads up there is death mentions in this chapter and some graphic stuff. 
> 
> Anyway hope everyone enjoys!
> 
> -AJ

Peter felt dizzy and a little nauseated but otherwise he felt okay. Someone was screaming his name and that made his head throb in agony. He tries to struggle to his feet but it’s hard to get a bearing on the world around him with the dizziness.

“We have to go Parker!” someone shouts. Peter is yanked off the ground by the collar of his shirt and dragged forward, his feet just barley holding him up. 

They are running, Peter being half dragged, when he is gently tossed against a tree with dense shrubbery surrounding them. Peter groans and rubs his hands over his face trying to lift whatever fog has settled in his brain.

“Pete, Peter buddy. How you holding up?” the guy in front of him says. He comes into Peter’s field of vision and with the moonlight casting a glow on them he can finally make the guy out.

“I’m fine Bucky. My head is just a little foggy is all,” he says readjusting his helmet slightly.

“Okay, how many fingers am I holding up,” Bucky holds his hand out to Peter wiggling three fingers.

“Three,” Peter says confidently.

“Great. You’ll be fine until we get to the rendezvous point. Think you be okay until then?” Bucky askes.

Peter nods but before he can say anything else they hear a round of heavy gun fire close to their position. They stop breathing and Peter covers his head then curls up to protect himself. When it stops he looks to Bucky to see if he has any sort of plan but Bucky is staring at something that is over his head. 

He snaps his eyes back to Peter, “Kid we can’t stay here otherwise we will be sitting ducks. We need to move South East to meet up with strike team one, they had an assault team sent in earlier that way we would have a central base before we moved against the Italian territories.” 

“What about the other guys in Wolf Company? Do you think they are okay?” Peter askes. Bucky shakes his head.

In a small voice he says, “I don’t know kid. We took a pretty heavy hit just trying to jump in. There is no telling how many men we lost.”

A minute passes as Peter reflects on all the men that potentially didn’t survive the jump, hoping and praying that Neal isn’t among those who died. Peter is glad that when he jumped Bucky wasn’t too far behind him. Now they just had to survive the trek to base camp and take it one day at a time from there.

“Do you have your compass? Mines busted from landing,” Bucky pulls a map and a flashlight out from his bag, “Give me your rain jacket also.”

Peter hands the things over to the man and waits while Bucky slings the jacket over his head. He uses the jacket to block out any light that may come out of the flashlight. This way he can check the map and the compass to see where they needed to head in order to meet up with the rest of their platoon.

Turning off the light and pulling the jacket off his head Bucky stuffs the map back into his bag, “I saw a road sign right before I saw you so we are about 7 kilometers out from the base camp. We better get started.” 

Nodding Peter gets into a low crouch pulling his rifle close to his chest, “Right which way are we heading?”

“That way,” Bucky says pointing straight ahead of them. 

They make their way in a low shuffle with Peter fallowing closely behind Bucky. As much as Peter hated to run while in basic training, with how hard it was for him to breath afterward, Peter was really glad for it now.

About half an hour into their 4-mile hike through the dense forest Bucky abruptly stops causing Peter to bump right into him. He makes a soft umph as he collides with Bucky’s shoulder, his friend has his arm up in the air with his hand closed signaling that they needed to halt. 

Bucky drops to one knee and Peter fallows by dropping to both. He slides up to Bucky to that he is cross covering him should they need to fire. They wait for whatever it was that Bucky heard making them drop into the defensive rifle position.

Then Bucky moves his hand using the signal that he wants Peter to move off to the side. Peter gets up and shuffles as silently as he can into the bushes that encase the area they had been walking. Then he resumes his low position on the ground so that he has a better advantage if someone were to come their way.

Bucky pulls something out of his back pocket, Peter recognizes it as one of their signaling devices. When the users pressed the metal on the little plastic device it makes a sharp squeak. If you didn’t know any better, it would just sound like a cricket. But to the US army it allowed others to know that you were on the same side.

Peter waits to hear the sound of the crickets from the brush opposite Bucky, when he does he breaths a deep sigh of relief.

“Hello? Who’s out there?” someone off in the distance askes. Then Peter could hear footsteps that sounded like they were moving closer to their position. Bucky stands but he doesn’t give Peter the go ahead to move from his position so he stayed put.

The figure emerged from the shadows and Peter feels even more relived, “Sargent Barnes, boy is it good to see you,” Lieutenant Winters says.

“You too sir,” they shake hands and Bucky waved Peter out of his hiding place.

“Private Parker, I am glad that you are all in one piece but you’re looking worse for wear if I do say so,” the Lieutenant says.

“Piece of plane smack him right on the helmet sir. Lucky the punk wasn’t more severally injured,” Bucky says giving Peter the side eye.

Peter huffs indignantly, “What? Wasn’t like it was my fault that planes were falling from the sky!” 

Winters gives him a small grin and says, “Right, well fall in. There are some guys back a ways waiting to see the what’s the hold. We’ve got to get going if we are going to make it to the rendezvous. It’s gonna to be a long walk back fellas.” 

“Yes sir,” Peter says walking passed the Lieutenant and Bucky. They hang back most likely so Bucky could give him an information on the surrounding area. Just before he is out of hearing range Peter heard the Winters say to Bucky, “Glad your kid survived Barnes.”

“Yeah me to sir. Someone’s gotta look out for the little guy. He’s too young to die in this war Lieutenant.”

Peter just about stops walking to turn around and say something, but instead he keeps moving a tired grin on his face. Some things just don’t need acknowledgment, but Peter can take comfort that even though he is thousands of miles from home he has someone that is looking out for him.

“Hey short-stack. Glad to see you survived the jump!” A thin pale face with short red hair plastered to a forehead comes into Peters view.

“Yeah, I’m glad to see you to Neal,” Peter says smiling and reaching his hand out for Neal to shake but is pushed away by said man. Peter is enveloped into a hug; he hugs the man back happy to see his friend.

“Okay guys come on break it up. We got a long walk ahead of us, get into formation,” Winters says stepping through the brush that Peter had just come through. Bucky walks over to Neal and him shaking Neal’s hand and falling into the ranks. The rest of the men climb out of the shrubbery to join them.

“Good to see you to sour-puss,” Neal says. Bucky grins and nods letting him know he feels the same way. 

They walked for hours, until the sun broke over the horizon. Peter feels dead on his feet hoping they were at least somewhat close to the rendezvous point. All the men marched forward and very rarely would anyone say anything; everyone was too caught up in their own heads to make much conversation.

Bucky marched next to him with his rifle warped securely around the middle of his body just like Peter had his. As the morning light was breaking in the sky they came across what looked to be a farm house. The house itself was blown to bit and only a structural skeleton remained. There were a couple of cows that roamed around the clearing and a couple more that laid dead near the house itself. 

What caught Peters attention however was a man that was strung up in a tree, he had on a US military uniform. His body was tangled in the strings of his parachute, when he jumped he must have gotten stuck in the tree and then strangled. Taking a better look around Peter could see that there were more bodies of dead soldiers that littered the farm house. The enemy must have become aware of these men and slaughtered them were they stood.

Peters breathing started to pick up, he could have just as easily been one of these men. Not given a fighting chase to survive the war but mowed down then left forgotten.

“Don’t look. Keep your head down,” Bucky’s voice broke through to Peter. A hand was placed on the back of Peters neck keeping his eyes directly on the ground and away from the dead men.

“Sargent Barnes front and center!” Winters calls from the front of the pack. Giving Peters neck a quick squeeze Bucky trotted up to meet with the Lieutenant. Peter just hugged his rifle to his chest and stared at his boots.

“Here Pete,” Neal says handing Peter a brown packaged object. Peter takes it and opens it to find chocolate. Peter eyes meet Neal’s questioning why he was giving away his chocolate ration.

“Chocolate helps fight shock, or at least it does according to my Nan. I know it must be shocking to see someone who has died. I’m sure that most guys here are thinking the same thing and just don’t want to say anything. 

I grew up on a farm sort of similar to this you know, and even though I’ve never seen a dead guy, we did have to do a lot of our own killing to have food especially in the winter. Was a real shock the first time I saw something die, that’s when my Nan gave me some chocolate she said it make me feel better.”

“I, um, thank you Neal. I really appreciate this but I don’t want to eat your chocolate,” he says pushing the bar back to Neal. Neal just brakes off a piece and sticks it in his mouth giving Peter a wink and a smile.

“Thank you,” Peter says more quietly this time as he broke off a piece for himself. Bucky comes jogging back to them then and Peter offers him the last bite of chocolate which he accepts with a short thanks.

There is a rumbling under Peters feet just then, he looks up just in time for him to see a bomber plane shoot through the sky passing them. He hears a man from behind him say, “Must be the Navy.”

“Looks like the ground forces are landing right about now,” someone else says.

Winter picks up his bag from the ground and shouts, “Alright men, we are only about half a klick off from the rendezvous position. Gather you stuff.” 

\--------------   
They make it they make it the central command base a half an hour later. All then men are exhausted including Peter. The adrenaline from the jump has worn off so everyone is ready to fall asleep. 

When they make it inside the camp the men who had been traveling with them that hadn’t been a part of Wolf Company wandered off to try and find the remains of their own platoons. What was left of Wolf Company found Lieutenant Winters and they were being shown their quarters for the time being.

The command base was huge; it was part of an actual town that had been destroyed by bombs probably years earlier. Peter even in his exhaustion could still tell how beautiful the stone architecture had been before it had been blown to kingdom come. 

Bucky, Neal, and Peter along with the rest of Wolf company were given a blown out church as quarters for the rest of the day. Peter had just dropped his bag and laid down on a pew when Winters voice calls out to them.

“Get some rest boys we are moving into Italy tomorrow,” and with that he left the small church and Wolf company to get some rest.


	4. Roads to Hydra

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! Hope everyone is ready for this next chapter. Just to let you guys know there is graphic violence in the chapter. But yeah I think this is the longest chapter I have ever written before, let me know what you think in the comments. :)

It’s bitterly cold, the kind of cold that makes you sticky with sweat as your body works overtime to heat itself up. The subzero temperatures choke Peter as if the moisture in the air he breaths is instantly freezing in his throat.

BOOM

The ground shudders around him as he crouches in the trenches that his unit has taken residence in. They are facing off with some Italian forces that block their entry into the northern part of the country. Wolf Company has been hiding out in this small trench for nearly two days waiting for some heavy artillery back up to save them. They are currently outnumbered and outgunned, the only saving grace is the small amount of suppressing fire that they are able to give.

“Parker, 2 o’clock grenade!” Peter twists his body so he is oriented the right way, bites the clip off the grenade and tosses it towards the enemy’s encampment. The ground explodes as it makes contact and Peter can hear the defining sounds of screaming that he believes will never leave his head.

“Good work Private!” someone shouts. 

Peter slinks back to the same position that he held moments ago waiting for the next command. His body resting itself against the trench wall with his head barley sticking out of the ground and his rifle laying up right in the muddy ground.

After making it the central command base four weeks ago, Wolf Company has been working its way South East to try and push their troops into Italy. So far they had been pretty successful, it was only now that they met a heavy resistance. They were nearly to the base camp that the other Allies had set up after they sailed through Morocco and Spain to reach Italy. Peters company had gone straight through Nazi occupied France in order to reach Italy so it was taking a lot longer to meet up with the other Allied forces.

“Peter, Pete!” Bucky shouts over his shoulder at Peter. Peter looks up at Bucky whose head is just outside the trench his gun firmly planted in the snow covered ground ready to fire.

“Yeah Buck?” Peter questions.

“Look alive kid, these bastards are being gutsy. They’ve been poking their head out of their holes more often today. I have a bad feeling about whatever is coming.” He says to Peter. Peter nods and grips his rifle more closely balancing it with his cheek and the slippery muddy snow on top of the trench wall.

A few minutes pass with radio silence from either side. Just as Peter thinks that the battle for today is over about thirteen men from the enemy side are standing up from their trenches. White flags hanging out of their belt loops, no one dares fire.

Peter watches with an air of trepidation as the men walk forward with their hand raised up; Peter feels Bucky tense up next to him. It looks as though they want to surrender, but no one breaths waiting to see for sure what the other men will do. 

He sees it before everyone else, each of the thirteen men pull out grenades and toss them at Wolf Company. Peter thinks of nothing as the grenades sail towards them, he drops his gun and it clatters to the ground.

One grenade lands only a couple of inches from Bucky’s feet, Peter feels the world slow down around him. It feels like he is having a staring contest with the grenade itself. As quickly as he can Peter grabs the grenade and launches it back out of their trench just before the thing explodes. Then without hesitation he tackles Bucky they both reel sideways until they smack onto the ground. Peter topples on Bucky as the rest of the grenades grenades fly into their trenches. 

“Oh god!” someone yells.

Grenades!” another person shouts.

There is a thunderous explosion as each one of the bombs go off around them. Peter holds his helmet trying to protect his neck and Bucky as much as he possibly can. As the dust settles around them and Peter can hear the anguished wails of his blown apart comrades.

Before Peters mind can take him back to that dark corner of his mind where he thinks of all the slain men that this war has taken a thunderous roar sounds overhead. For a moment Peter thinks that the Nazi’s have gotten their air force to send bombs into the trenches to finish them off. That is until Peter sees the insignia for Allied Forces on a plane that is careening overhead and towards the enemy across the field. 

The planes drop multiple sets of bombs into the trenches on the opposite side of the field. The explosions that fallow are deafening. Once again Peter feels the ground underneath Bucky and him rumble with dissatisfaction as it is torn apart one more time. There is no way anyone could have survived that kind of attack. 

There are a few joyous yelps that break out among the men in Wolf Company but all Peter can hear is the sounds of pain and gasps of dying men. 

Peter is suddenly pushed sideways and onto the muddy ground; he looks over to see Bucky glaring at him. 

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing Parker,” he spits at him. Confused Peter just stares back at Bucky.

“Don’t you dare throw yourself into harm’s way like that ever again, got it?” Bucky roars.

Suddenly Peter feels anger course through him. Who was Bucky to tell him that he couldn’t save his life, he knows for damn sure that Bucky would sacrifice himself for Peter sake if it came down to it.

“A thank you for saving your butt would be nice,” Peter snaps instantly regretting the words that came out of his mouth. Bucky jumps up from the muddy floor, face caked with dirt and grime; Peter figures he looks about the same.

Bucky points his finger at Peter like he is scolding a child that did something naughty, “You don’t get to die in this war you hear me! If someone as good as you doesn’t get to live, then there was no point in this goddamn war. I don’t care if a thousand other men die; hell I don’t think it would matter much if I died. You have to fucking survive! Do you understand me Steve!”

Peter feels like he has been slapped in the face as he glares at Bucky flush with anger, “I am not Steve.”

Bucky lowers his hand as if what he said is finally hitting him, he turns away from Peter then grips the side of the muddy trench until the wall slightly deteriorates from the force of his hand. Peter picks up his rifle and walks down the narrow passages of the trench. He’s got to see if there is anything he can do to help the wounded.

“Private Parker!” Peter can just make out the Lieutenant from his position. Peter hurry’s over to where Lieutenant Winters is standing in the make shift command unit for this particular trench.

“Yes Sir?” he asks.

Winters hands Peter a small notepad and a field pen, “I need you to go around find out who is wounded. Help patch up anyone who can keep moving, if they are too badly injured then write their names down and give it to me. We need to keep pushing forward if we want to make it into Italy and catch up with the other Allied forces.”

“Yes Sir!” Peter salutes the man.

He walks around the intricate passage ways trying to find as many men as he can that are still able to march on, helping where he can to patch people up. 

“Hey kid! I need some help over here!” a medic shouts at him. Peter shuffles over to where one man is kneeling over another. The man laying down has a gash torn through his stomach and is bleeding pretty heavily.

“Put your hands here and don’t let up the pressure. I gotta get this guy some morphine but can’t while holding his wound,” the medic tells him.

Peter stuffs his notepad back into his pocket and crouches down to the bleeding man. He firmly places his hands on the man’s abdomen and barley gets a groan from the man. The blood feels so warm on Peters hands and it makes him feel a little sick. It feels like the man’s soul is slowly leaving his body and Peter is the only thing keeping it in. 

If the medic noticed the tears that slipped down Peters cheeks after the man didn’t make it, he doesn’t say anything. And for that Peter was grateful. 

The list of men who are either dead or too far wounded got larger and larger as Peter gets around the trench. His list was now soaked with blood as he tried to help as many men as he could. Peter can’t tell anymore if it’s the cold that makes his fingers shake or the guilt of surviving when so many didn’t. What makes him so special, he asks himself repeatedly. 

He gets the list back to Lieutenant Winters and he tells Peter to pack his stuff because they are moving at first light. Peter just nods and slinks his way back to where he last saw Bucky, only Bucky is no longer there but instead Neal.

“Hey Pete, how you doing kid,” he says thumping Peters helmet. 

Peter shrugs his shoulders and numbly says, “Well I’m still alive right.”

Neal gives him a half assed grin and says, “Yeah I guess that’s all we can really ask for these days huh?”

Peter packs up his bag swiftly and then takes the rest of the time to make himself cozy on the floor. If they have to wait to move out, then Peter is going to make the most of it by trying to get some sleep. Neal wanders off a few minutes later to see if he can’t find any more rations before leaving; Peter can’t wait to get to the Allied forces base camp because it means hopefully a shower and a hot meal.

It feels like only a second has passed when Peter opens his eyes again. It’s still night outside but he can tell that the sun is close to breaking over the horizon. He is jerked awake by a coughing fit. He struggles to breath and is gasping for air around his coughs, it burns like his lungs are trying to jump out of his body. He hasn’t had an asthma attack in such a long time that he barley remembers the pain that comes with it; he truly feels as if he is going to suffocate. The cold dry air around him makes trying to breath in so much worse.

As black spots in his vision start to appear he feels a steady hand on his back rubbing circles in a soothing manner. Out of the corner of his eye he can see Bucky sitting next to him with his back pressed against the trench wall.

“Breathe Petey breathe. Your gonna be just fine. I don’t have an inhaler for you so you’re just going to have to fallow my breathing. Deep long breaths okay,” he tells Peter still rubbing his back. Peter nods and fallows the steady rise and fall of Bucky’s chest with his eyes. 

After some time, he feels a lot better like the air is finally getting to his brain again. Exhausted he slumped over so that he can rest his head on Bucky’s shoulder.

“Are you still mad?” Peter asks. 

Bucky moves his arm so that he can wrap it around Peters shoulders then says, “Go back to sleep. You don’t have much time but it’ll be worth it, I’ll be right here kid.”

“Hey Bucky, you think you could tell me something about your home again?” Peter asks while yawning.

“Sure thing kid. Did I ever tell you about the time I went to the Stark expo? It was something let me tell you, I bet you would have loved it there was so much of that science stuff you like,” Bucky said. Peter didn’t hear much of Bucky’s story because he drifts right back to sleep.

 

Bucky’s POV

They made it to the Allied base earlier that morning and Bucky was incredibly grateful for the change of scenery. Turns out that you can only be stuck it a disgusting muddy trench with a bunch of other grown men for so long. 

Bucky wants to blame that as the reason he snapped a Peter the day before. But in all honesty it’s because every time he sees the kid all he can think of is Steve, his Stevie. The thought that if Steve somehow made his way into the war and had to go at it all alone without Bucky at his side terrified him.

Bucky knows that Peter isn’t Steve but damn if they aren’t similar; it only cemented itself in Bucky’s mind yesterday when Peter had a full on asthma attack. Bucky remembers so many nights when Steve would stay over at his and he would wake up in the middle of the night hacking up a lung.

Bucky’s mission was to survive this war with that kid in tow. They would make it out; Peter would become a genius that would rival Stark one day and Bucky would get to go home to his Steve. That was a promise.

“Bucky, hello? Earth to James Barnes!” Peter says to him snapping him out of his reflecting.

“What do you want punk?” he asks smirking.

The Allied base here in Italy is really nice, almost as nice as the barracks that they stayed in back when they were in London. There were loads of tents and latrines, hell Bucky even got to shower off all the grime and dirt that was caked onto his face and body after days of being in the mud. 

All of Wolf Company were in high spirts after arriving here, Bucky certainly felt better after he got to lay down in an actual cot after weeks. Peter was absolute ecstatic about the resent events of being here. He had a vibrancy to him that Bucky hadn’t seen snice back in basic training. The numb deadness in his eyes was lessoned and that made Bucky happy. Not much mad him happy anymore, but this kids joy did.

“There is going to be some sort of special guest coming here in a few days isn’t that something!” Peter exclaimed. Bucky was relaxing on his cot that had been assigned to him and Peter was bouncing in his seat on the bunk across from him.

“Yeah I guess so. Whose dumb enough to come to a war zone though,” Bucky asks skeptical at best. No sane person would come all the way to an active war zone just to entertain a bunch of half dead soldiers. 

“Uh don’t know. Some guy named Captain America, whoever that is,” Peter says still excited. Bucky doesn’t have the heart to the boy how blatantly unauthentic that sounds. Just more propaganda to rally the troops into action, so Bucky just keeps his mouth shut.

“Sounds okay to me kid,” Bucky received the brightest smile from the kid that Bucky knows he made the right decision.

“So we can see him right?” Peters asks bouncing on the bed again.

“Okay eager beaver, if that’s what you want then sure it sounds good to me,” Bucky says grinning at the kid’s excitement.

They didn’t end up getting to see the Captain America guy after all. A few days of much needed down time, Wolf Company is given their next mission the day before this Captain guy was going to perform.

Lieutenant Winters meets with some high ranking British women that tells him and Bucky about the next mission. Wolf Company is moving to attack a facility that is 20 miles behind enemy territory. Agent Cater tells Bucky that they are trying to take down a high level Nazi facility that houses some of the most dangerous weapons manufacturers in the war. Hydra is a sub branch of Nazi’s that deals in making weapons of mass destruction.  
“How do you expect us to march 20 miles into enemy encampments at take down a covert technology facility. All of Wolf Company would get blown apart if we even tried walking in there,” including him and the kid.

“You’re right Sargent Barnes. That is why you will not be walking in, you will be dropping in. I heard that you and Wolf Company have trained with the best paratroopers in the States, is that correct?” agent Carter asked him.

“Well yes Ma’am,” Bucky said looking at Winters who looked mildly annoyed at Bucky for talking out of turn.

“Well it’s settled then. Stark will be dropping you and your teams near the Hydra base at 2300 tonight,” Agent Carter said. 

Winters saluted the women and Bucky fallows, “Yes Ma’am,” they shout in tandem. Now he has to tell the kid they are jumping into the next battle at 11 o’clock tonight. He had just started to see more life in the boy.

It was already late in the evening when Bucky and Winters finally made it out of the briefing. Bucky decides to go break it to the kid right away. He weaves his way through the base camp and find his way to the barracks that he and Peter are housed in.

He finds Peter fast asleep on his bunk that is right next to Bucky’s, only his mess of curly hair pops out from his blankets. Before waking up the boy he grabs his pack from underneath the bed and starts stuffing clothes into it. Once he has most of his equipment in his jump bag he goes to wake up the kid.

He places his hand on Peter shoulder he gently shakes the boy awake, “Hey come on Pete. Time to get up.”

“Ugh, five more minutes Uncle Ben,” Peter says stretching out. Bucky wants to smile but his mind is sad for the kid who really doesn’t have anyone left.

“Parker you need to get up now, we have a new mission,” Bucky says shaking him again. Peter sits right up and looks wildly at Bucky.

“A new mission? When do we have to leave?” Peter asks.

“In a half an hour,” Bucky tell him regrettably. Peter only nods then swings his feet off the bed and stands up. Much like Bucky did a few minutes ago he grabs his bag from under his bunk and fills it will all of his equipment.

“I would pack light for this one kid, we are heading for covert mission this time,” Bucky tells him. Peter doesn’t give much away as he hurriedly packs his stuff.

When they finished, Peter and he walk out of the barracks to find their way to the makeshift runway. The other men in the company were already waiting for takeoff; many of them laughing or chatting away. It’s a stark difference to how they were before the first jump into the war. Peter and him make their way into the lineup of men with Neal just in front of the them looking like he just rolled out of bed. His red hair sticks up in every direction, he tries to slick it down but it’s no use so he just plops his helmet on over top of it.

“Top of the morning to yeah fellas,” he says to Bucky and Peter. Peter lets out a little chuckle and Bucky grins at the two of them.

“It’s the middle of the night Neal,” Bucky says.

“Yeah well I already got my beauty sleep this evening,” Neal grins.

“That’s good, you need all the sleep you can get with that ugly mug,” Bucky says and Peter laughs as Neal frowns good naturedly.

“You boys ready for this fight then?” Neal asks after a second.

“Yeah, but we don’t got a choice do we,” Peter says.

Just then a man in an ostentatious fur coat steps out from behind the plane. He’s got short dark hair that is nicely slicked back and a very neatly trimmed mustache. He has a cocky persona that Bucky picks up on right away. 

Then it hits him where he knows this guy, this is none other than Howard Stark one of the richest men in the world right now. Bucky looks over to the kid and sees him practically vibrating out of excitement, guess Bucky forgot to tell him who was flying the plane.

“Bucky! Bucky, that’s Howard Stark! Think he would want to talk to me about the fusion capacitor paper that he just published?” Peter asks him.

“Yeah probably kid, but maybe not when he is about to fly us into enemy territory,” Bucky tells as gently as he can.

Peter is quick to agree; Bucky thinks it’s because he is too awestruck to even think about disagreeing with him right now. It makes Bucky happy to see the kid look so care free right before they jump straight back into this war.

They’re in the air when things start to go to shit. The enemy must have spotted them sooner than they would have liked because just before they were about to reach their jump location the other side starting shooting massive amounts of artillery at the small jumper planes.  
Bucky assumes that Stark has hit the green go head button because the next thing he knows they are all out of the plane and hurtling towards the ground where the enemy waits for them. He twists and tries to find Pete so they can rendezvous together with the rest of Wolf Company. He spots him not to far from where Neal who is just about to touch down.

When Bucky hits the ground he makes quick work with the extra equipment, tossing away his reserve chute and his life jacket. Then he creeps his way over to where he last saw Neal and Peter, clutching his gun prepared for anything. Bucky is getting mental flashback to when they first jumped and Peter had nearly been crushed by falling pieces of plane.

This time is different because there was only a handful of planes and none of them were shot out of the sky, yet. Bucky scans the area hoping to get a glance of bright red hair or a curly brown mop. He spots them fairly quickly and jogs over with his rifle in tow.

“Nice weather today boys wouldn’t you say,” he grins as Peter and Neal spot him. 

“Yeah can’t complain, I mean it’s a little cold but what are you gonna do its November in the mountains,” Neal says. Peter chuckles at the two of them while yanking off his life jacket. 

“Okay guys, we need to go North East. Fallowing that direction, we will have to run into the rest of the squads. But keep your eyes peeled for any signs of the enemy.” Bucky tells them pointing off in the distance.

“Sure thing Sarg,” Neal says standing. Peter and Bucky fallow him up, Bucky takes the lead and starts to make the hike North using the compass that he pulled out of his pocket. Luckily it didn’t break while landing this time. 

Only a few minutes into the journey Bucky feels like something is off, he keeps jerking his head backwards to make sure that Peter and Neal are still behind him. They both look like they are fine but Bucky has this sinking feeling in his gut that something is wrong. He’s about to push the feeling away when he hears the unmistakable sound of a twig snapping behind them.

They had jumped into a really dense patch of forest so it’s not unlikely that there would be animals. However, being that there was a firefight not even half an hour ago Bucky assumes most animals would be hiding in fear still.

Bucky signals for their small group to halt, he sees both guys out of the corner of his eye tense up. Bucky hears another snapping of a twig, this time to the side of their position. Peter shuffles so that he is closer to Bucky waiting for his order. 

BANG

Bucky watches in horror as a bullet connects with Neal’s head, the boys helmet is knocked off. He watches in stunned silence as the man who had become one of his closest friends during the war crumple to the floor. Dead.

Peter gasps, and Bucky shakes himself of his shock realizing that he isn’t the only one who is friends with Neal and that they are still very much in danger. Bucky grabs the back Peters collared shirt and yanks him to his chest wrapping his hand around the boy’s eyes trying to spare him some of the gruesome images that are now burned into his eyes.

“Jesus Christ. Shit,” Buck exclaims.

Five men walk out of the woods then all carrying high powered weapons pointing them at Bucky and Peter. Fear washes over Bucky then, how is supposed to get Peter out of here alive. He made a promise to himself and he wasn’t about to break it now.

“Drop the weapons and all of your equipment now,” a voice says in a German accent.

Bucky drops his gun and slinks out of his equipment bag that is on his back. Still holding closely to Peter he makes the boy drop all of his stuff on the floor as well.

“You are coming with us. We have a doctor who would be very interested in meeting you two,” the man said.

He keeps a firm grip on Peters collar still holding him close making damn sure that he wouldn’t get a chance to look back at their dead friend who lay crumpled on the muddy floor. 

Fuck, is all Bucky could think as Peter and he marched forward surrounded on all sides by Hydra agents.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys weren't too attached to Neal... I'm so sorry!
> 
> Did you like Bucky's POV? Let me know whatcha think!
> 
> -AJ


	5. Experimentation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello all welcome back to my story! Hope everyone enjoys this next chapter. Also thank you to everyone who has left a comment or a kudo I really appreciate it!! Okay lovelies onto the chapter.

Bucky’s POV

The day that Bucky met Peter all he could think is how sorry he felt for the kid. This guy probably just graduated from a secondary schooling and was heading for this gruesome war. Peter had been beaten bloody by some low life punks in his own platoon. Bucky could see at the time that the poor kid would have burst into tears in gratitude for his help that day.

He reminded Bucky so much of Steve, even then; he had no self-preservation and tried to fight back even when those guys had a good 100 pounds on the kid. Bucky knew even then that he had to protect this boy.

So after helping the kid get cleaned up and clothed, after getting beaten in the shower, he marched down to his commanding officer’s quarters. He demanded that the kid be switched in his platoon, he went as far as yelling and saying how the type of behavior that those men had portrayed was unacceptable.

The top ranking commanding officers were not too happy to be yell at like that, but they relented and allowed the young kid into Bucky’s platoon as long as he was the one to keep an eye on the boy.

He made a promise to himself that day that he would do whatever it takes to get this kid out of the war alive and back to whatever family he had left. He just hoped that he would make it back home as well so he could see Steve one more time.

“Bucky,” a small voice whispers against him. He looked down to see Peter who pulled him out of his musings. 

“Yeah Pete?” he questions.

“Do you think they’re going to kill us here?” Peter asks.

“I won’t let them, remember your going to survive this war. I made a promise didn’t I?” Bucky tells the boy.

“What about you though?” Peter looks up at Bucky once again. 

“Don’t worry about me kid okay,” he tells him pulling him closer.

The men who killed Neal had dragged them through the forest and directly to the base that they had sought after in the first place. Bucky didn’t relent and kept hold of Peter not wanting to lose him. Peter in return clung to Bucky like he was his last life line in this world and Bucky was damned if that didn’t break his heart a little.  
Once inside they saw mostly machines that built weapons, but these weapons were nothing like Bucky had ever seen. They had some sort of blue glow to them that Bucky really couldn’t describe. Then the two of them were marched into a large underground area just outside the manufacturing part of the facility. They were tossed into these little round cages and above them there were barred holes that allowed the captive to see the top floor.

Then holes also allowed the guards to be able to see into the cages, to keep an eye on all of the captives. The underground area was dark and dank, it smelled of rotting corpses and Bucky wouldn’t be surprised if that turned out to be true.

Peter and Bucky couldn’t tell how long they had been in the cages but it couldn’t have been more than a day. Unlike the other cages this one was isolated from the rest, they could see the other ones farther away and there were a lot of people crammed into those multiple cages.

Peter coughs into Bucky’s chest it’s a wet cough like he used to get when he was younger and about to come down with the flu. Bucky held onto Peter tighter, the last thing they needed was for the kid to get sick while they were held captive in a disgusting basement. It was too cold and damp in this basement especially for winter time, there is no telling when either of them could get sick.

“How are you feeling kid?” Bucky asks the boy.

“I’m okay, it’s kind of cold down here. I’ll be fine though,” he says rubbing his eyes, it hits Bucky how young this boy is. He should be back in the states right now living life with his friends.

“Get some sleep buddy. I’ll be right here,” he tells Peter. Peter just nods and closes his eyes drifting off into an uneasy sleep. Bucky leans his head back and shuffles in the dirt to trying to make himself more comfortable. His eyes are just about to slip closed when he hears movement from the end of the hall pasted all of the cages.

Bucky’s head snaps to where the noise is coming from, the jostling wakes Peter up. Damn it, Bucky thinks to himself, that was the first time in a while Peter had actually rested. 

“Buck wh..” Bucky hushes him. He lets go of the boy and gets to his knees so he can get a better view of what’s coming. It’s too dark in here to make out anything clearly, all he can see is two guards flanking another smaller man.

The air in the room feels tense and Bucky has a bad feeling about these men. Before they walked in there was light chatter among the other men in the cages around them. As soon as they walk in though the room had gone eerily silent, like every man in the room suddenly stopped breathing.

Bucky caught the eye of another man in one of the cages farther away from his and watched as the man made the sign of the cross against his chest directed at Peter and he. Whoever these people were couldn’t be good.

“Peter, whatever you do make sure you don’t get separated from me okay. Looks like something bad is headed our way. Stay close,” Bucky whispered harshly at Peter after breaking eye contact with the cross guy. Peter nodded, his eyes turning to stone setting his resolve, the face of a solider Bucky came to realize.

The sound of boots clomped their way over to Peter and Bucky’s cage, the last one on the right. Bucky gulped finally getting a good look at who was in front of him. The man had an average looking face if Bucky was being honest. He was a pudgy short man with round wired glasses and little to no hair. He had on a white coat with a suit underneath and a pair of really nice dress shoes. He looked like any other doctor that Bucky had ever seen. 

However, what terrified Bucky were his eyes. They were bright blue but within them they held a malice the likes of which Bucky had never seen. He could tell instantly that this man would kill thousands of men just to see how they would bleed, and that chilled Bucky to his bones.

The man and his two goons stop right in front of Bucky and Peter cage and the man gives them a wide toothy grin. Bucky shivers a little bit; this man makes him feel like a play thing or an animal. The two goons open the doors to the cells, one grabs Bucky by the arm and the other one takes Peter by the scruff of his neck.

“Don’t even think of trying anything. Move and we shoot this one,” the guard that has Peter says while shaking him. All Bucky can do is nod and hope they won’t shoot Peter anyway. 

The doctor man walks closer to the pair; he gently reaches for Bucky, tugging at the chain around his neck. “Sargent James Buchanan Barnes,” the man says with a German accent as he reads his dog tags.

He takes a step towards Peter and reads Peters dog tags as well. The man then walks back to the opening of the cage. When he turns back around he is smiling widely again looking at the pair.

“You both may be unaware of this now, but I think that fate has brought us together for a reason. You see I need help, I am trying to replicate a super solider serum, but alas my subjects keep dying on me. They were weak pathetic things,” the doctor says eyebrows pinched in disgust.

“But you two, now I believe you are to be strong. I am going to make you into the perfect weapons for Hydra. You’ll get to be the pride of our new world, doesn’t that sound marvelous. The solider and the child, how perfect,” he says clapping his hands together.

“Tell me one thing though, how old are you?” Bucky thinks the man is asking him so he replies.

“27,” he tells him.

“Not you, you insufferable idiot,” the doctor says. He points to Peter then and the guard shakes the boy a bit.

“I’m 18 Sir,” Peter says in a small voice. The man signals something to the guard and Bucky watches as the guard holding onto Peter hits him on the head with the butt of his hand gun. Not enough for the kid to lose consciousness but enough for it to hurt like hell. 

“Do not lie to me!” the man bellows, “I can tell just from looking at you that you are much younger than you claim to be boy.”

“I turned 15 six months ago sir,” Peter says tears slipping down his face as he avoids eye contact with the man.

Bucky is speechless, he knew the kid was young but not that young. He was still a child, a kid who should still be in shorts let alone fighting in a war thousands of miles away from home. Bucky stares wide eyed at Peter, how did he even get into this situation in the first place? He must have lied on his enlistment forms like Steve tried to do. 

He is suddenly so angry at the kid, what was he thinking, this was no place for children. All the things the boy has seen and done in this war, oh god and watching Neal take a bullet to the head. Bucky thinks he’s going to be sick. All this time he thought he was doing his best to protect the boy who was drafted for a war he didn’t ask to be apart, but the truth is that Peter shouldn’t be here in the first place.

“Take them to the isolation ward,” the Doctor tells the guards. Bucky can’t even look at Peter as the guards march them forwards. 

The men they pass, as they walk down the corridor full of cells, look on with a mixture of sadness, pity, and relief. Bucky avoids most of their eyes as they watch him and Peter exit the room, Bucky catch’s the man from early making the sign on the cross one more time. Bucky hopes that any God might have mercy on them.

Bucky glances at Peter then and see the paleness of the boy’s skin and his eyes blown wide with fear. He hugs himself around the middle like he is trying to shield himself, Bucky wishes he could take the fear out of the boys eyes, but in truth Bucky is probably just as scared as Peter is in that moment. 

He knows nothing good can come from a scientist whose goal is to make some type super soldiers for the most powerful weapons dealer in enemy territory. If they succeed in turning Peter and him into weapons of mass destruction, then there is no telling how this war will turn out. He can’t let that happen, he has a promise to keep.

Peter and him are walking along the corridors of the facility like how they came in a day earlier. However, they are led through a branch off the western wing were the building goes from being manufacturing into more of an office and lab part of this compound. The walls are made of brick that had seen better years. One thing that really struck him was how dark everything down here was. The overhead lights were off and the only light that could be seen was that of machinery and science equipment all around them. It was a stark difference to how the manufacturing part of the place had looked with the glowing blue lights of weapons and lots of overhead lighting.

They turn into a room left of the corridor and the guards stop. Glancing around he sees in the corner there is a cell that was only slightly smaller than the one that held them only minutes ago. The guards deposit them in the cell and leave Bucky and Peter alone in the room. Bucky notices a lot of blue prints and designs of things; the burning smell of antiseptic was all over the room making Bucky want to sneeze.

Nothing to do but wait Bucky turns to Peter, “15 huh.”

Peter looks away ashamed, Bucky can read his face like an open book, “I didn’t want anyone to find out.”

“No shit. You shouldn’t be here Pete,” Bucky tells him letting some anger slip through.

“I wanted to do my part, help the cause.” Peter says slumping against the bars of the cell.

“Not by joining the war as a soldier Parker!” Bucky explodes and Peter winces. Blood rushes to Peters face just like when he gets mad.

“You wouldn’t understand,” Peter seethes crossing his arms and looking away from Bucky.

“Oh yeah? Try me. Why the hell is some snot nosed punk sitting in a cell with me when he should be all the way back in Queens, doing his ‘part’ there,” Bucky says the last part in a mocking manner.

Peter slips down the sides of the bars so that he is sitting with his knees to his chest, “We needed the money,” his mutters quietly.

“You could have worked in a factory to make some cash,” Bucky says not understanding why he would risk dying at his age to make some extra money.

“You and I both know that if I went to work in a factory they would work me like a dog and not compensate me properly for it. I… I knew that if I joined the war efforts as a soldier then the government would pay me a fair amount and even if I died my aunt would still be okay financially.”

Bucky stays quiet as Peter tells him this, and it’s true. Even though child labor laws have gotten better in the last two decades there are still a lot of factory employers that pays shit for the amount of work a kid could do. 

“My Aunt and Uncle took me in when my parents died; then my uncle died and my Aunt had no reason to keep me around other than the love she had for me. But I couldn’t keep watching her wither away to nothing because we didn’t have enough money to feed the both of us. She would starve herself if it meant that I would get just a little more food.” Peter says looking down at his hands.

“Peter..I,” Bucky starts but Peter interrupts him.

“No, it’s just… I was always so sick growing up, still am I guess. I used to think if I just keeled over when I would get sick then Aunt May could live a little longer. I even tried to refuse the food she gave up for me when I was sick, she just lost it. She yelled and screamed and even cried begging me to take the food,” Peter hastily rubs the tears from his face.

“So I joined the army. I honestly don’t know how I convinced her to let me go, especially after Ben died. But here I am, May will be fine and no matter what anyone says I know I made the right decision. There is so much help needed here, and besides who else is goanna watch your back,” Bucky looks down at the kid and just stares at him.

This kid, who is barely out of boyhood, has lost and lost but still gets up to fight for those he loves. The kid has seen more death and cruelty in his young life and it makes Bucky so angry that he should have to experience all the hate in this world. This boy is to pure for this world, he just wanted to make sure that his only living family had enough money to have food. 

It’s like a knife in Bucky’s gut because as much as he promises himself that they will get out of this war alive, he knows there is a good chance that they will die trying. What crushes him the most is that one of the purest people he’s ever known is never going to get to experience what it is like to have a childhood. For God’s sake the kid’s only ever known the economic collapse and pure unadulterated poverty. 

“You are too good for this world Pete,” is the only thing Bucky can say to the kid.

Neither of them say anything after that they just sit silently in the cell. Peter has wrapped himself up in a ball so tight on the floor with his head pressed on his knees. Every now and again he coughs so hard that the skinny frame of the boy shakes as the cough rips through him. Bucky wishes he could do something for the kid, but he knows there isn’t much to do other than hope and pray he doesn’t get worse. He stands with his back pressed against the bars with one foot resting on the floor and the other on the bars. He crosses his arms and hopes he gives off a calm body language.

They must have sat in silence for a couple hours both reflecting on the situation they found themselves in; at least that’s what Bucky is thinking about. The door adjacent to them swings open and the same pudgy man waddles his way in with that sick smile on his face.

“Sorry to keep you waiting dear boys. I just needed to make sure everything is all set up for our little experiments,” he says walking towards the cell. Bucky and Peter say nothing as the man stops in front of them. 

The Doctor makes a shocked face and points to the air, “Oh goodness! How rude of me, I haven’t introduced myself yet! I am Dr. Zola and it is a true pleasure to meet you both,” he says to them grinning. This guy is off his rocker Bucky thinks staring at the man, when neither Bucky nor Peter say anything back the Dr.’s face pinches in a frown.

“Well how rude of you two, don’t worry we will strip that insolent behavior from you,” Dr. Zola says digging his hand into his white coat and pulls out a pair of keys. Bucky shifts his eyes quickly around for any sign of the guards. He is confused when he doesn’t see them anywhere, this man doesn’t think that he could take on both Bucky and Peter if he was to open the cell himself. 

In the other hand the Doctor pulls out some sort of canister, he shakes it a little then looks at the nozzle. Bucky glances back at Peter who is also looking at the man in confusion, what was he going to do? He turns back to the Doctor and get his answer when the man sprays whatever was in the can directly in to Bucky’s face.

Bucky sputters and staggers back in the cell rubbing his face, what the hell was that he thinks. Using his dirty shirt, he tries to wipe whatever it is away from his eyes when he starts to get a little dizzy. His whole body feels heavy and he can feel himself start to sway like the ground underneath him is shifting in a constant earthquake. Groaning he can hear Peter calling his name as he stumbles forward and onto his knees. He falls face forward onto the cold floor, he fights hard to keep his eyes open because there is no telling what they will do to him or Peter if he passes out. 

Finally, whatever was sprayed in his face makes him succumb to the darkness of unconsciousness. 

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Bucky jerks awake sometime later; he has no idea how long he’s been out. His head is throbbing and it’s just as dark in the cell as it had been earlier in the day, or was it night? Bucky honestly couldn’t tell, what he could tell however was that there was a wailing that pierced through his skull making his head hurt even more.

He pulls himself up off the grimy floor and places a hand on top of his head hoping the pulsing would stop. His eyes snap behind him then, oh shit. Peter isn’t in the cell with him. He surges to his feet grabbing the bars when he feels like the room is spinning again and looks around the room wildly for the boy. 

It’s too dark in there now, Bucky can’t see anything but the bars in front of him and a couple black blobs that Bucky assumes must be office and lab furniture. He hears someone chuckling in the dark farther into the room, Bucky squints to try and make out the figure.

“Looks like your friend is awake sweet boy, let’s have him take a look at you shall we,” Bucky hears the unmistakable voice of the Doctor say. 

The lights in the room are flicked on and Bucky stumbles backwards again shielding his eyes from the bright lights. He groans, his head pounds even harder after being subjected to the light. When his eyes finally adjust to the brightness he can make out two figures on the opposite side of the room. 

Peter lay strapped to a medical chair like device, the kid looks rough he can tell even from this distance. His hair is matted to his forehead, the boy is panting like he can’t get enough air into his lung and sweat is pouring down his face. Peter tries to make eye contact with Bucky but his head is also strapped down so he doesn’t get very far. Dr. Zola stares down at him like he has accomplished some sort of great feat. Anger rises in Bucky’s chest at seeing the boy, he bangs on the bars but it is useless.

“Tsk, tsk my boy, so eager,” the doctor taunts him, “Don’t worry you will get a turn I promise. However, you woke up at the perfect time. We are just about to complete the experiment.” The Doctor rubs his two meaty paws together with that sick grin on his face again.

Dr. Zola goes over to one of the tables and gets some sort of device, he then takes it back over to where Peter is starting to struggle against his restraints. The man places the device onto Peters curly hair gently. He walks over the machine on the opposite wall and fiddles with the controls.

When he finally flips the switch all he can hear is the deafening roar of screams that rips through Peters little body. Peter cries and begs for it to stop but whatever that thing is doing doesn’t stop because Peter continues to cry out in agony. 

Bucky shouts for the sick man to stop, “Please, Please, he is just a child. Peter! Peter! Oh God Please your killing him.” Bucky shouts and shouts until his voice goes horse.

Finally, Peter falls silent and the Doctor flips the machine off; Peter must have passed out from whatever it was. Bucky was just glad that it was over for now.

“Your turn,” Dr. Zola says to him grinning in Bucky’s direction.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What did you think?? Let me know in the comments!
> 
> More fluffy stuff to come next chapter, I think you all will like it! Plus Steve and Bucky reunion!!
> 
> Okay thats all from me :)
> 
> AJ


	6. Rescue and Reunion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone! I am so sorry about the wait for this chapter! I promise to make it up you soon! Hope you enjoy!
> 
> -AJ

Peters POV

“Hey kiddo, how you doing?” an exhausted voice croaks from underneath him. He feels the chest he’s leaning on breath in deeply only to let out a round of dry coughs that rattle his position. 

He knows that Bucky doesn’t expect an answer from him; Peter knows that he can talk but there is some invisible force that makes the words stick in his throat. He nods his head and Bucky knows that he is going to be okay for the time being. They worked out this little system when Peter first screamed himself horse and couldn’t communicate.

They had been in Dr. Zola’s lab for days, at least Peter believes it’s been days. There are no windows in the lab so it is impossible to tell how many days they have been held here for. It has been a constant blur of being strapped down to a metal table then being tossed back into the little cage he shares with Bucky. 

A grimy hand runs itself through Peters hair and he flinches a little bit at the contact. He doesn’t have to look up to see the pity on Bucky’s face, he’s seen it enough these past couple of days. 

“Don’t give up Peter, we’re going to live. We will live,” Bucky tells him firmly, slightly ruffling his hair. Peter just hugs Bucky tighter as they sit on the ground in the dirty cage. The Doctor and the guards must have all left otherwise Bucky wouldn’t have been talking as much as he was. They barely speak now unless totally alone. The last time either of the spoke out of turn Dr. Zola had tied Bucky to the metal table and made him watch as the guards beat Peter and left him on the floor bleeding for the rest of the day.

Peter had started to feel different and he hadn’t told Bucky about it. It was like every sense he had was heighten. When those guards beat him bloody he knew he should’ve died right then, there is no way anyone should have survived that kind of beating. Let alone a scrawny sickling like him. What was even stranger was that the next day he was already healed, there was only a dull throbbing left.

When they first arrived in the lab they would inject things into Bucky and Peter for hours and hours with all different kinds of fluids. He remembers that first day Dr. Zola saying he was trying to make some sort of solider. 

Peter just hopes that if he stays quite about the new ability he has then maybe he can somehow help Bucky and himself escape this awful place. 

 

 Bucky POV

Bucky is worried about Peter, the boy hasn’t said anything since that bastard of a doctor started his sick and twisted torturing on them. They’ve been routinely injected with some foreign substances for days on end, no doubt trying to perfect whatever it was that would make the two into mindless solider.

About half a day ago Peter got so sick that Bucky thought he was going to die and leave him all alone in the cage with the mad scientist. Thankfully, Peter seemed to be on the mend; however, he had stopped talking all together only nodding at Bucky when asked a question. 

He wished there was something that he could do for the kid, but Bucky knew that the only thing he could do for the boy now was hold him close when the guards would leave the room. Bucky just hoped that Peter was holding onto to his sanity better than Bucky was. 

When the Dr. Zola would come in he would strapped either Bucky or Peter to the lab table, for Bucky he would inject some sort of blue liquid into his arm then he would place the device he used to make Peter scream onto his head. It felt like every brain cell he had would scramble and his head would feel fuzzy like he was losing his grip on reality.

That would go on for hours until Bucky would pass out from pain or exhausted, then he would be thrown back into the cell and it would be Peter’s turn. Being toured wasn’t nearly as bad as hearing Peter scream. 

Right now was one of those very rare moments when Dr. Zola had left and the guards were gone. Bucky usually would try to speak to Peter, to make sure that he knew the kid was alright. He reminded him that they would survive, but it felt less and less likely that was going to happen as the days’ trickle away. 

Just as Bucky decided to tell Peter a story about his childhood-seeing as that always cheered the boy up- Bucky heard the harsh grinding of the door to the lab open. Jerking his head in the direction of the door hoping that it was just the guards returning; he was met with disappointment when he heard the distinct clicking of the Doctors nice shoes on the concrete.

“Hello boys! It is a lovely day outside, such a pity that you are trapped in this room. The snow has melted a bit, seems like it was a short burst before the real winter starts any time now. In fact, it’s nicely green out there,” Dr. Zola always had this way of talking to them as if they were old buddies and not his prisoners. It always made Bucky sick with dread.

“Today is going to be a little different from the norm. You see little Peter is going into a separate room for testing today! Oh don’t worry Bucky you’ll get your little spider back, whether he is intact is completely up to him,” Bucky feels Peter tense up in his arms. He is confused about why Dr. Zola refers to him as spider but is even more concerned that Peter won’t be in the same vicinity as him.

He feels the boys breathing start to pick up as soon as the guards enter. He is too weak at this point to fight the men as they rip Peter from his arms. Bucky tries to struggle to his feet, to go after his boy, but one of the guards lightly shoves him and he is back on the ground. 

Bucky can’t do anything but watch the two guards drag the boy from the room, he nearly breaks when Peter whimpers and reaches his hands out for Bucky. He suddenly feels a hand gently pat his head. He looks up to see Dr. Zola staring down at him with that sick grin he always has when he knows Bucky can’t win.

“Come now. It’s your turn on the table,” Dr. Zola says and another guard enters the room grabbing Bucky by the collar and dragging him to the exam table. The man straps down Bucky’s arms and feet then shoves a plastic teeth guard into his mouth so he won’t break his teeth when he starts to thrash.

“What a good boy hm, it’s almost like second nature to you know. Well don’t worry this time it will be particular painful.” Dr. Zola says while flicking the syringe he is holding, “You see my boss really needs results. So I need to make the formula perfect as soon as possible. Peter is really just my play thing, to see if cross-species genetic alteration can be achieved. With you though, my plan is to make you into the most powerful weapon that Hydra has ever seen!”

Dr. Zola sticks the needle into his arm and moves around the table so that he can set up the device that scrambles his mind like eggs on a pan. He gently lowers it over his face so that only his left eye and right cheek show and switches it on. 

The pain is immediate, coursing through Bucky’s body, he trashes and pulls at his restraints silently begging for it to stop. He arches his back off the table, curls his toes in, and waits for this round to be over. But it doesn’t stop it just keeps searing his mind setting his whole body on fire.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Bucky? Hello? Come on jerk, get your head out of the clouds,” Bucky’s snaps his head in the direction of the sound and is met with…Steve.

“Steve what are you doing here?” Bucky asks him.

“Whadda mean what am I doing here? You’re the one who asked me to come to the movies with you,” Steve looks at him questioningly.

Bucky looks around and sees that he is no longer in the dark laboratory of the mad Doctor. Instead he is back home in Brooklyn, two blocks away from where Steve and he lived. Running his hands through his hair he turns around looking for anything that can explain why he’s here. All Bucky sees is the familiar sights of his home, something he’s been dying to see again.

“Buck what’s up with you huh,” Steve says putting his hand on his shoulder softly looking concerned, “Is this about shipping out tomorrow?”

Finally, it clicked for Bucky, he’s lived this moment before. He’s finally cracked and his mind is turning against him. Bucky looks down into Steve’s eyes, at least if he has finally gone crazy he gets to see Steve one last time, if only in his memories.

Bucky throws his arm over Steve’s shoulders and says, “Nah Pal, I just remembered something I thought I forgot. Let’s go see that movie.”

Steve stares back at him for a moment looking like he’s going call Bucky out on his bullshit before nodding his head and walking forward towards the theater. Bucky withdraws his arms reluctantly not wanting to attract suspicion.

As they walk the last block the theater Bucky can’t help but stare at Steve’s profile. He always been smaller than Bucky and so thin that it sometimes scares Bucky and he will go without food if that meant Steve would eat more. He had the nicest blonde hair that would flop in his face if he went to long without a cut. Steve’s clothes never quite fit him right and he always looked like he was swimming in them; most of the time he would both suspenders and a belt to keep his pants up. 

Bucky missed him something awful while overseas, there’s a constant ache in his chest that is always there ever present with the absents of his Stevie. Bucky wishes that he could pull the smaller man to his chest and not let go, but he knows how dangerous that could be for the both of them. 

“Bucky,” Steve says turning to look at him, “I’ve been thinking.”

“Oh yeah? About what Stevie,” Bucky asks him.

“I think I … I wanna be your fella. Proper like,” Steve whispers so softly that Bucky almost doesn’t hear him. He remembers this to, how much joy he felt in that moment when Steve decided he wanted to be his. Hearing those words again does something to him, it makes him feel so light like he could do anything just cause Steve wanted to be his fella.

“I want to write to you while your away also, I just gotta know you’re doing alright. At least until I get there to save your butt you jerk,” Steve grins up at him.

“I would love for you to write to me Stevie, nothing would make me happier; but we gotta make sure it just sounds like two friends. I don’t want nothing to happen to you while I’m gone okay.” Bucky tells him cupping his neck wishing so desperately that he could kiss the handsome punk that was in front of him. One day maybe, he thinks to himself.

“Aint nothing gonna happen, you worry too much. ‘Sides I’ll find a way to make it out there with you in no time anyway,” he says grinning at Bucky. Bucky shakes his head grinning, even in his own head Steve is just as righteous as he is in real life. 

Just as they were about to get their tickets for the movie Bucky sees something out of the corner of his eye. It was so quick that he just about misses it, ducking into a corner was a small kid no bigger than Steve.

Bucky would know that mess of curly brown hair anywhere, he stares hard at the alley juncture hoping to get another glimpse of the boy. This is it the last straw of his sanity he thinks gazing at the place he last saw the boy; even in his mind he’s making up things that never happened. He places a hand on his head feeling a sudden ache come on, why would Peter be here. Who is Peter, does Bucky even know someone named Peter?

His head is killing him; he tries to think of how he knows the name Peter but is coming up empty. All he knows is that he feels awash with a sense of protectiveness at that name. He then feels a hand on his shoulder gently coaxing him back to the memory he is living in.

“Bucky,” Steve says to him. Bucky doesn’t turn his head still staring at the place where he saw the mess of curly hair disappear. He knows if he looks at Steve he is going to have concern written all over his face.

“Oh, my God!” Steve says. Bucky feels wobbly on his feet and the pain in his head is getting worse with every second.

He blinks slowly a couple times hoping to clear the pain away and stares at the same spot where the person disappeared. Suddenly he is no longer on the street corner in Brooklyn with his fella but in the disgusting laboratory of Dr. Zola. 

Bucky wait for his vision to clear hoping that this isn’t another memory. Something is pulling at his restraints and Bucky feels relieved that the pain for today is over. However, someone new pops into his line of sight just then and is staring down at Bucky with concern. He knows it’s not Dr. Zola or any of the guards.

“Is that…” he garbles out.

“It’s me,” the person says, “It’s Steve.” 

Bucky’s sight comes back to him in sharp focus, standing right in front of him is Steve Grant Rogers. His fella, his best friend, his till the end of the line. Bucky is even more worried that the hallucinations are taking over because last time he checked, Steve wasn’t this big.

“Steve?” he croaks out as Steve helps him off the lab table.

“Come on,” Steve says pulling him up. This is real Bucky thinks, there is no way his mind could make something like this up.

“Steve,” he says again smiling stumbling when he puts his feet on the floor still weak from the torture.

Steve places a hand gently onto his unshaven face grinning at him like he just won the best prize. It’s so infectious Bucky can’t help but smile back at his friend.

“I thought you died,” Steve whispers to him still holding his cheek.

“I thought you were smaller,” Bucky jokes back. Steve chuckles then looks around the room for a moment fixating on something on the opposite wall behind Bucky. Bucky can barely stand so he just clutches onto Steve’s leather jacket as hard as he can, not wanting to topple over. 

“Come on,” Steve says after a moment dragging Bucky off the platform in which the table stands and towards the door. Steve helps him through the lab and towards the door that housed freedom. As they go they pass the small cage that he had called home for the last few days. A memory of brown curly hair pops into his head.

How could he be so thoughtless, where was his mind! Frustrated with himself he yanks Steve and himself to a stop looking back into the lab for any signs of the boy.

“Where is he? Where’s my kid? We have to get Peter,” he croaks out again not used to so much talking.

“Bucky we need to leave now, your delirious.” Steve says tugging Bucky backwards towards the door. Bucky jerks out of his grasp and stumbles back into the laboratory.

“No you don’t understand; he’s just a boy, he’s basically a baby. He needs me Steve, we need to find him.” Bucky tells Steve in desperation.

“Bucky there is no one else here, we don’t have time,” Steve urges him.

“I’ll make time,” Bucky hisses and marches right back into the lab looking for his kid. Rounding the platform, that he was just on, he sees a small metal door. That must be where they took him earlier. He can still hear Peter’s whimpers as they dragged him from Bucky. 

Bucky turns the nob to the door with so much force that the nob breaks in his hand and the door swings open. Bucky nearly gags at the sight in front of him. Peter is strung up by his wrists so that only the very tips of his toes touch the floor. His head is hanging down his chin tucked into his chest. He looks like he passed out from whatever they did to him.

Bucky steps into the room farther and sees that Peter’s body had dozens of cuts littering his torso. Bucky panics and races for the kid, how could forget about Peter for even a second.

“Oh God!” Bucky whips around and sees Steve staring at the kid with wide horrified eyes.

“Help me get him down,” Bucky says getting to Peter and trying to untie of the ropes holding him up. Steve comes into the room and helps by untying the other set of strings. They work quickly and quietly until the boy is free, Bucky catches the boy as he falls and they both sink to the ground.

Bucky runs his hand through Peter hair, sighing in relief that the kid is still alive even after they did God knows what to him. Peter lets out a groan and clutches tightly to Bucky’s shirt.

“Here put this on him,” Steve hands him Peter shirt that they must have taken off in order to slash his torso. 

“It may not be especially cold right now, but it’s still winter,” Steve says as Bucky tugs the shirt over Peters listless body.

After getting the shirt on Bucky stands up with the kid bridal style and nearly buckles under his weight. He’s still too weak from days of starvation and can’t carry the kid out of here.

“Give him here, I’ll carry him,” reluctantly Bucky hands Peter over to Steve. Steve places him on his back holding Peters legs to keep him up. Peter reminds Bucky of one of those Kola Bears that him and Steve had seen once at the Zoo.

They sneak their way out of the lab and into the hallway that Bucky remembers waking through when they first got to the laboratory. Fallowing the hallway Steve glances around for any sign of escape, Bucky on the other hand can’t stop thinking about how different Steve looks.

“What happened to you,” He says stumbling behind Peter and Steve.

“I joined the army,” Steve says looking back at Bucky.

“Did it hurt?”

“Kinda,” Steve tells him pushing Peter up his back to get a better grip.

“Is it permeant,” Bucky questions rolling up his sleeves.

“So far.”

He is about to ask how it was even possible when the entire compound started to shake with so much force that both Bucky and Steve nearly lose their balance and toppled to the floor. Using one arm to hold Peter, Steve grabs the back of Bucky shirt and halls him forward making their way out of the long hallway.

“This whole place is going to blow, we need to find a way out right now,” Steve says to him. They came out in a room that is unfamiliar to Bucky, but he sees another door at the opposite side that must lead to some sort of exit

Bucky jerkily nods his head and the two of them jog lightly towards the door, just as the reach it there is another solid shudder of the build, this time much closer to where they are. Bucky knows, even in his current state, that if they didn’t get out of there soon it would mean certain death for all of them. Bucky still had a promise to keep; and by God if being tortured by and evil Hydra Doctor didn’t kill them, then a little falling building should be a walk the park.

Bucky and Steve go through the door hurrying even more now, on the other side of the door is a set of stairs leading down. Bucky takes a second to look around and see that they are above the main manufacturing part of the compound. The whole floor below them is engulfed in flames and Bucky isn’t sure how they will get down. 

They take the stairs two at a time trying to get down, Steve seems to know where he is going and Bucky is more than willing to fallow him. He keeps a careful eye trained on Peter while they are maneuvering their way through the intricate grates and railings. He prays that the boy won’t wake until they’ve made it out. 

Making their way up another flight of stairs Bucky feels the building lurch as another bomb is set off. He grabs the railing holding on waiting for it to pass, Steve raises his shield that Bucky hadn’t even realized he had.

“Captain America,” a voice calls out in a friendly tone. Bucky jerks his head to the two figures on the opposite side of the bridge they had been facing.

“How exciting!” Bucky doesn’t know the man who speaks but he sure does recognize Dr. Zola standing off to the side.

“I am a great fan of your films,” the man says handing a brief case off to the Doctor. Steve shuffles Peter off his back and hands the passed out boy to Bucky. Not being able to carry his entire weight Bucky just lets the kid lean heavily onto his side.

“So Dr. Erskine managed it after all,” the man says walking closer to them. Steve starts to move in the man’s direction, both of the men glare at one another. Bucky pulls Peter closer to his side and leans heavily onto the railing for support.

“Not exactly an improvement, but still, impressive,” the man says getting closer to Steve. Steve however, hauls back and sucker punches the guy right in the face. Bucky grins, somethings never change he thinks.

“You’ve got no idea,” Steve says back as the man holds his face. Bucky can’t see his face well as it is covered mostly by the man’s hand, but something looks off about it.

“Haven’t I?” the man says throwing his own fist at Steve. However, before the fist can reach Steve’s face he blocks it with the shield he’s been carrying around. It hits with a thunk and the fists dents the metal of the shield.

Steve goes for something in his right pocket lowering his shield just a tad, but before he can get to it the man punches Steve again. This time he lands a solid blow causing Steve to be launched backwards and the gun he was trying to pull out to fly off the railing and into the fiery explosions below. 

Before the man can get too close to Steve he is kicked in the chest with both of Steve’s feet and is sent sprawling backwards onto his butt. Dr. Zola is quick to switch the lever that pulls both sides of the bridge apart. Steve and the man stand up on their respective sides of the bridge.

“No matter what lies Erskine told you, you see, I was his greatest success!” the man says making it to the other side. Bucky is horrified when he starts to peel his face off revealing a sunken in skull that was a deep shade of red.

“You don’t have one of those, do you?” Bucky asks Steve quietly.

“You are deluded, Captain. You pretend to be a simple solider,” the man says while tossing his face mask into the fire below, “but in reality, you are just afraid to admit that we have left humanity behind.”

“Unlike you I embrace it proudly,” the man starts to walk to the elevator on the other side of the bridge, “Without fear!”

“Then how come you’re running?” Steve questions.

He doesn’t get an answer, the man gets into the elevator and the door closes. Without saying anything Steve picks Peter back up so the boy is again hanging onto his back. Bucky looks around wildly for anything that can get them across to the other side to escape.

“There, look we can walk across that fallen beam,” Steve says pointing to a piece of twisted metal that connects the two sides. 

“You go first, I’ll be right behind you with Peter,” Steve says to him. Bucky agrees and makes his way as quickly as he can across the makeshift bridge. He’s doing well until about halfway across when the damn thing starts to shake. Bucky makes the mistake of looking down and sees everything blowing up. 

The entire beam starts to shift under his weight then, he’s nearly across so he jumps. He grabs the sides of the other railing as the twisted metal shifts again and falls into the fire below. Bucky struggles his way onto the railing. Getting back to his feet he looks over to see Steve and Peter, oh God how will they get across now?

“There’s gotta be something else around here. Something to get you across,” Bucky shouts.

“Go! Get out of here! We’ll find a way across!,” Steve shouts back.

No goddamit! They were this close to getting out of this hell hole alive. There is no way that he was going to leave his love or the kid he promised to keep alive. There had to be a way to get them all through this. His eyes meet Steve’s then he glances to the little face that is pressed into Steve’s neck. Peters curly hair stuck to his forehead and his brows where pinched in worry even in his sleep.

“NO! NOT WITHOUT YOU!” he shouts at Steve.

 

Peter POV

“Mhhhh,” Peter groans blinking his eyes rapidly. His whole body hurts, there was a dull ache everywhere. He thought that a lot over the last couple of days but this time it was worse. There was a pounding in his head and everything was amplified to a million. He felt like he had been skinned alive.

His thoughts drift back to the last thing that happened before he had passed out. He guesses that being skinned alive wasn’t too far from the truth. They had taken him away from Bucky into a side room where they shed his shirt and started to slash and cut up his torso in order to see how quickly he would heal.

“Hey kiddo, you back with us?” a voice says.

Things start to come into focus, he can tell that he is being carried and that they are…outside! His head jerks up in surprise as he takes in his surroundings. They were outside, what happened while he was out?

Bucky gripped his legs and Peter holds onto his neck as he glances around. His eyes widened when he sees there were hundreds of men behind them all marching along. The men all seem happy and in good spirits as they sang, marched, and chatted amongst each other. He, Bucky, and some other guy Peter had never seen before marched at the front of the pack. He gave the new man a small smile and a short wave before clutching Bucky’s shoulders again. The new man gives him a warm grin in return.

“We’re free Petey!” Bucky exclaims.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so what did everyone think? I apologize if it was a little hard to fallow during the middle and end. Basically Bucky had a hallucination/memory of Steve and him going to the movies and when he comes to Steve is actually there. Also if your wondering why Peter hasn't said much I wanted him to have a form of selective mutism that comes on because of trauma, but don't worry that won't last for long!
> 
> Anyway if you enjoyed your time here leave me Kudos or a Comment! :)
> 
> And as always, until next time!  
> -AJ


	7. Revealed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone!  
> Thank you for waiting for this chapter and continuing to support as well as liking my work. I am back, sorry for the wait! School started and everything is very hectic at the moment. Anyway hope you like the chapter and I will try to be back with more very soon.

“Show me what you got kid,” a gruff voice says from across the table Peter sits. There is a lingering sent of musk that hangs in the air. Peter can feel the tension of every man in the room glaring down at him, waiting for whatever move he’s about to make.

He picks up the remaining chips that are in front of him and tosses them into the middle of the table. Leaning back in his seat with a tiny grin on his face reading the other men’s expresions. Four of the five men around the table have already given up their purist of victory; now it was just down to Peter and the other man. 

“You are a dirty liar kid, you ain’t got shit in your hand,” the man pushes all of his chips into the middle of the table as well, “I’m calling your bluff kiddo!”

The man then proudly slams his cards down onto the table and presents them for the rest of the group to see. 

“Three pair! Try and top that kiddy,” the man then starts to reach for the pile of chips on the table. The other men around him start hollering and congratulating the guy on his success.

Peter says nothing and just winks at the man good naturedly.

“Huh?” Dum Dum Dugan questions.

Peter lowers his hand for the other man to see his hand; a Royal Flush all the same suit. 

The other men including Dum Dum are stunned into silence; Peter grins and takes the chips to his own side of the table. He knew that Dum Dum would think that he was a poor little kid who was trying to bluff his way through the game; unfortunately for Dum Dum his uncle had taught him to play poker before he passed.

 

“Why you little,” Dum Dum lunges across the table trying to get to Peter. Peter just smiles along with the rest of the guys around him as Dum Dum’s face turns red with rage from losing to a kid.

“You cheated kid,” he tells Peter sitting back down in his seat with his arms crossed over his chest in a manner that reminded him of a really little kid who didn’t get what they wanted. The other men howled with laugher at Dum Dum’s antics.

“It’s okay Dum Dum. Maybe next time you can play a toddler, then maybe you’d win,” Jim Morita says patting Dum Dum of the shoulder grinning from ear to ear. That sets off another round of laughter from the guys.

Peter giggles slightly along with them, feeling lighter than he has in a really long time. He takes all of the chips and brings them to his side of the table. He sees something out of the corner of his eye; tensing only briefly until he notices it’s just Bucky standing in the doorway with a small smile on his face. Grinning at the man he holds up one finger to indicate he needs a second, Bucky nods back.

Peter makes a motion with his hands to let the other guy know that he’s keeping an eye on them while he’s away. He makes sure to make the most eye contact with Dum Dum because he knows Dugan can be a sneak if he wants to.

“Come on punk, we got a briefing in 5 minutes. You know how Stevie gets when we are late,” Bucky calls out from the doorway.

Peter trots over to Bucky’s side and Bucky throws an arm around him. 

“We’ll see you guys later at the pub right?”, Bucky questions the men and receives a chorus of grunts and yeahs. Peter lets Bucky lead him down the hallway of the makeshift army command post. 

Peter didn’t remember much about being rescued, the last thing that he remembers is the horrible pain they inflicted on him right before he passed out. Apparently they wanted to test his ability to heal in certain situations. They kept slashing over and over and over again; eventually he had become numb to the sensation of whatever they were using to scrape or stab his skin with.

He had come to being carried on Bucky’s back and everyone was cheering and celebrating. In that moment Peter nearly wept with joy at the thought of being away from that awful place. People were in awe of the great military accomplishment that Captain Steve Rogers managed to pull off. So when they returned to the base that Bucky and he had left not two week earlier, Bucky led the group in praises of Captain America.

Peter thought that Captain America was something else, he was so amazing and strong. Captain Rogers was nothing like what Bucky had described him to be like, he thought the Steve Bucky had talked about was small and scrawny like himself. 

Peter had really taken to Captain America he was kind and nice, and even though Peter still couldn’t force the words out of his mouth Steve made an effort to talk to him. Steve, Bucky and Peter had really stuck together after they reached the base camp in Italy.

It had only been two weeks since they had been rescued but a lot has changed. They pushed most of the injured and captured men back towards allied controlled areas. Currently almost all of the men who had made it out of the Hydra facility where in the South of France prepping for shipment back out to the front lines. 

Bucky, Peter, and Steve were waiting for waiting for special orders from Colonel Philips. Captain America had done such a good job taking out that Hydra command base that a lot of the higher ups thought that it would be a huge victory for the allied forces if they could use him to choke off the Nazi’s weapons research strongholds. Looks like they were about to finally get those orders.

Peter was getting a little jittery about being in the base camp for so long, but really he was fearful that he was going to get kicked out of the army. A dishonorable discharge and maybe an escort to the military police. Bucky knows all about him being too young to have gotten in the army without lying on his enlistment forms. Peter knows how adamant Bucky is about him surviving this war, but would he go as far as ratting him out to the MP so that they would force him back to New York? Peter didn’t know, all he could do was hope that Bucky wouldn’t say anything.

“Jeeze kid, you’re thinking so loud I can practically hear ya,” Buck says squeezing his shoulders, “What’s got your knickers in a twist.”

“Nothing really, just thinking about stuff,” Peter whispers back. His speech is getting better but as of right now Bucky is the only person he finds he can talk to without the words getting stuck in his throat.

“What kind of stuff,” Bucky presses him. Peter just shrugs his shoulder and doesn’t respond. 

“Is this about going to see Steve? Because I am positive the man thinks your something special kid. Besides you guys have been getting alone pretty well haven’t you?” Bucky asks.

“Not bout Steve,” Peter mumbles back, “Just thinking about being rescued.”

“Oh,” Buck says his arm falling from Peters shoulders, “I know it’s gonna be hard Pete, but I’m gonna be right here okay. If you start getting overwhelmed by it all, come talk to me okay kid.”

“Hey you guys, come on everyone is waiting on you two! Plus, there is someone I want to introduce you to.” Peter jerks his eyes away from Bucky’s and grins a little when he sees that it’s Steve all dressed up as Captain America.

“Nice tights,” Bucky laughs and Steve glares at him.

“They are not tights Barnes! They are tactile combat pants,” Steve grumbles.

“Oh yeah totally military issue, you go out on the battle field with those the Nazi’s will definitely run away in fear,” Bucky laughs at Steve’s expense again. Peter try’s to be polite and hide his grin behind his hand.

“Not you to Peter,” Steve says in fake exaggeration, “No fair there’s two of you now!” Steve throws his hands up in the air and turns back around to head into the room he just came out of.

“Come on Petey or else I won’t hear the end of it for weeks,” Bucky jokes and they fallow Steve into the room he just went into. 

Peter giggles softly at their antics and follows Bucky and Steve. He stops in the doorway however and gaped at what he sees. 

Machines, machines, and more machines. It’s like Peter has died and gone to heaven, the room is filled with the latest technology that not even the president of the United States could get his hands on. There is tech for the latest and greatest weaponry for the allied troops as well as tech that is years above modern science.

Peter turns his head and catches Bucky staring at everything as well, just as in awe at all of the amazing science and technology in the room as Peter is. He chuckles when he sees Steve walking passed everything without acknowledging how amazing of all of it is. As much as Peter has grown to like Steve he knows the guy could care less about science and tech, but Peter knows he’s happy to see Bucky and Peter so passionate about something.

“Come on you two, I want to introduce you to someone before our meeting starts,” Steve says ushering Peter and Bucky over.

Shuffling after Bucky, Peter can hear someone puttering around behind a large workbench. He hears a grunt then watches a man try to stand up from the floor only to bump their head on the workbench and swear loudly.

“Goddamn screw driver,” the man says and stand straight up, this time without hitting anything. 

Peter can finally see who the man is, suddenly he isn’t surprised to see all of the top of the line tech and highly advance science in the room. Howard Stark stand in front of him in an oil stained T-shirt with a screw driver in one hand and a lazy grin on his face. Star struck for the second time today Peter just stares at the man.

“Steve! How are you, my boy? I see your all in one piece after that stunt you pulled in Italy,” Howard says sticking his hand out for Steve to shake.

“Doing well Howard, good to see you again. Been meaning to get around to the workshop but I’ve been tied down in meetings since I got back. Brought some friends with me though. This is Peter and my best pal Bucky,” Steve says gesturing to Peter and Bucky.

Peter pulls on Bucky sleeve trying to get his attention, he desperately wants to tell Mr. Stark about the new arc reactor technology that, while only a theory right now, could change the way we consume energy. But Peter could barely speak around Bucky, there was no way he was going to be able to have a conversation with Mr. Stark about his paper. However, Peter had been talking about it for nearly the entire time they had been at this base when Peter had gotten a chance to read it. 

Bucky glances down at him and Peter thinks he gets what he’s trying to articulate to him. Bucky smiles and pats him on the head then turns back to Mr. Stark.

“This is Peter; he wants you to know that he read your paper or something. The arc reactor?” Bucky glances down in confirmation which Peter answers by shaking he head up and down, “Yes well he really enjoyed it.”

“That’s neat, thanks kid,” Mr. Stark flashes him a huge but fake smile and turns on his heal. Peter glances at Bucky who shrugs his shoulders in reply.

“Okay let’s head to that meeting boys. See where the government has decided to send us this time eh,” Stark starts to head out the back door to the lab opposite from where they came into.

Two hours later they were done meeting with the big wig government officials. Just like Peter had suspected they were going to ship them out to take down all of the Hydra bases because Steve and the rest of the men had done such a good job on the first one. Steve even convinced the higher ups to let him pick the men in his team. 

Peter is worried when they leave the meeting room, there is no grantee that they will let him continue to fight with Bucky. And with Bucky knowing how old he is, Peter is sure there is a one-way ticket back to the States for him as soon as the other men are ready to ship out again.

He can’t let that happen, he came here for a reason. He has a duty to his nation to fight for everyone back home. And now that he has these powers, that he doesn’t even fully understand, he can help so many more men if he is here helping.

No if Bucky sends him back to the states he will find a way back even if that means he has to be separated from his new friends.

“Hey Bud, why don’t you go change out of your uniform and into your civilian clothes. We are going out tonight remember.” Bucky tells him. 

Peter nods at the pair as they all make their way out of the meeting room. Steve is going to ask the boys tonight if they would be willing to join him on the journey to take down Hydra. 

He’s got to find out whether or not Bucky is going to tell Steve about him being young; it makes his insides sick with the thought that they might kick him out. Or even worse someone finding out about him being different now. Peter makes up his mind when he splits off from Bucky and Steve to head to his own bunk.

He ducks behind one of the latrine buildings and slinks along the side of the building. They were in that meeting so long that the sun was just about to set over the horizon. It gave Peter the perfect cover for what he was going to do.

Peter carefully places his hands on the sides of the building making sure that the sticky-ness of his hands would be enough to support his weight. Satisfied with the strength, Peter pulled his body up the side of the wall. Careful of his footing he pulls his body up onto the roof. 

He crouches down examining where he needs to go; lucky for him military bases, in order to maximize the space, are so compacted. It makes it easy for him to leap across the barracks to get to the other side of the camp where Bucky and Steve were at. He finds that, when whatever happened when Hydra was torturing him, he is so much more flexible. It’s almost like he has been doing gymnasts for his whole life the way his body moves now.

Peter makes it over to the other side of camp were Steve and Bucky’s bunks are. They pretty much had the whole barrack to themselves at this point. Most of the men that were held in there have been reassigned to other companies and have shipped back out to the front lines.

Slinking around the roof he makes it to the edge where he uses his new found powers to stick himself to the wall of the barrack. Handing upside down he shuffles his body towards one of the windows of the building.

Slowly, so not to attract attention from the two men currently inside, Peter pushes the window open a crack. His new abilities have heightened all of his senses so he doesn’t have to strain to hear what they are saying. Peter pokes his head in the window so that only his eyes are able to be seen if either of the men happen to glance in his direction.

He sees both Steve and Bucky standing alone in the barrack that is completely void of other people. They are standing in front of one another and Steve doesn’t look happy with his arms crossed glaring at Bucky.

“Bucky, how could you! He cannot stay here; he has to be sent back to the States immediately. He’s a child Buck.” Steve says and Peters eyes widen. He knew it, they were going to try to send him back home.

“You don’t understand Steve. After what we have been through he has to stay. I can keep him safe. You know just as well as I do that if we send him back to New York they will want to examine him. I can’t let that happen,” Bucky says shaking his head.

“What do you mean Buck? He’s safer there then he is here,” Steve argues back.

“No he isn’t. He… He’s different now. I don’t know what they did to him when they took him from me in that cage but. Steve you didn’t hear the way he screamed when they experimented on him, it was awful. They changed him, I don’t know how to describe it but he’s not entirely human anymore,” Bucky says his arms out pleading with Steve for him to understand. Peter feels like the wind is knocked out of him, Bucky knows he isn’t the same.

“All the same to send him home, get him the help he needs. Maybe they can reverse whatever it is that happened,” Steve says equally exasperated.

“I promised Steve, I promised myself that he would make it out of this war safe. If I send him back to the States, I can’t grantee that they won’t cut him up and experiment on him like some sort of animal. But if he’s with me, with us, I stand a good chance of keeping that promise,” Bucky crosses his arms and looks away from Steve. To Peter it looked like Bucky was hugging himself, trying to calm himself down. Peter feels incredibly lucky to have met Bucky, the loyalty that Bucky has shown him these last few months is something he hasn’t felt since before his uncle died.

Steve steps forward and pulls Bucky into his arms hugging the other man. Peter looks on curiously at the two. Bucky unwraps his arms from his body so he can place them around Steve’s large frame.

“It’s different now that you’re so big, member when I was the one leaning down to hug you punk,” Bucky whispers into Steve chest. Peter doesn’t even have to strain to hear the low murmur.

Steve laughs good naturedly and pulls back from Bucky for a moment to stare at the other man. Then he leans forward and captures Bucky’s mouth in his own; Bucky’s body looks like it melts into Steve as if he is trying to get even closer than they already are.

Peter eyes widen and he jerks back from the window. Crawling back up the side of the build so that he is firmly on the roof again he has one thought burning through his head; he should not have come.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What did you all think of this chapter? Let me know in the comments, I always loved to hear from everyone. Sorry in advance for grammar in spelling. Next Chapter will be more about the Commandos, I know you just got a tiny taste of them in the beginning of this chapter.
> 
> Until Next Time,  
> -AJ


	8. The Mission and its Soldiers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! I'm back again! Thank your for your continued support and comments. School has been rough for me this semester so I am trying to do a little bit of the story at a time. I will try my hardest to not make everyone wait another like 2 months for a new chapter. Hope you enjoy

Bucky steps back from Steve and grins at the man, Steve places a hand upon his cheek smiling widely back at him.

“Alright Bucky, I don’t think your decision is wise; but, between the two of us you should be able to keep your promise,” Steve tells him pulling out of their embrace.

“Thank you Stevie,” Bucky says.

“I still can’t believe you left for war and somehow acquired another skinny kid from New York to protect,” Steve tells him with mirth dancing in his baby blue eyes.

“Well my other skinny kid turned into a huge solider,” Bucky grins shaking his head. Steve pushes his shoulder chuckles his amusement. 

“Let’s go find the kid, then we can meet up with the guys in the pub,” Steve say to him.

“You gonna wear that?” Bucky snickers and gestures at Steve’s Captain America uniform. Steve, bless him, blushes.

“No. I’m going to change into something dapper if you must know,” Steve tells him all readying trying to tug the tight leather off his body. 

“It’s a shame I can’t show you off as my fella,” Bucky frowns.

“Hey none of that; one day okay, one day,” Steve places a hand on his cheek and Bucky leans into his touch.

Steve goes about changing his outfit and Bucky follows in suit trying to look as nice as possible while also sneaking glances at Steve. Bucky puts on his nicest uniform but it pales in comparison to the nice dress slacks that Steve has on. His are dirty and worn from months of war, but Steve is crisp and clean cut with his new Captain Uniform. Bucky couldn’t be prouder staring at the man in front of him.

Once they put the final touches on their outfits Bucky and Steve head over to the other side of the makeshift military base. The only reason that Bucky and Steve were separated from Peter in this new base is because everyone was under strict orders to be assigned to a bunk based on rank. Peter, being only a private, was placed on one side; Bucky and Steve, being Commanding Officers, were placed in another barrack.

Bucky felt bad leaving the kid on his own after all they had been through. However, Peter seems to be doing mostly okay, other than not speaking nearly as much as he had previously. Now that all of the other officers have shipped out, Bucky was going to try and get the kid moved into their barracks. Even if it’s only a for a little while before, they two, ship back out to take down Hydra. 

They find Peter in his barrack, which also is nearly void of people as most soldiers have left as well. Peter is pulling his clothes on, or trying to at least. Bucky chuckles to himself as he watches the boy struggle to get his sweater over his head to cover his button down white shirt.

“Here you go kiddo,” Bucky laughs helping the poor kid pull the sweater over his head.

“Thank you,” Peter whispers to him. 

“No worries kiddo,” Bucky says patting him on the head. Peter won’t meet his eyes when he looks down at the boy. Bucky shrugs, it’s not super unusual for Peter to be shy especially when he speaks in front of more than one person. Bucky is just glad that the boy is starting to feel more comfortable in being able to speak around Steve.

Bucky, Steve, and Peter make their way out of the barracks and into the cool evening air. The sun has finally set behind the horizon and the darkness of night is blocked by the bright lights on the military base. The air was crisp and cold as they approached the winter months even here in the south of France. The three of them made their way out towards the gates of the base.

“Think one of these guys will give us a ride out?” Steve asks as they saddle up to the gates.

That question is answered only a moment later when a young supply truck driver stops to let the three aboard his vehicle. The main part of the town isn’t that far from where the base is set up so many supply trucks come through at all times of the night to drop off supplies for the allied forces.

The ride is bumpy but no one seems to mind as this is the first leave they had gotten in a while and, Bucky assumes, they were just as happy as he was to leave the base if only for a short time. No one spoke at all just as caught up in their own heads as they bounced along in search for a stiff drink.

Bucky had never seen a town as picturesque as this one; back in New York it’s a lot of dirty streets and tall buildings crammed together. But it was home and it’s where his family lived and it’s where he met the love of his life. This little town in the south of France though was right out of a story book. The town was made up of small brick cottage like buildings that where nicely spaced apart. The streets where clean and where made of cobble stone; Bucky had been shocked the first time he has seen an honest to God horse and bugging going down the road a couple of days ago. It was the most beautiful little town he had ever seen.

The kind young driver dropped them off at the only pub in the small town. Even from the sidewalk you can hear the amount of noise coming off of the building. It was a Friday night and a lot of men where on leave or just looking to get away for a little while. 

Placing a hand on Peters shoulder he asks, “You gonna be okay kid.”

Peter nods, Bucky doesn’t have to be a genius, like the kid, to know that whatever those Hydra bastards did to Peter, it really messed with his senses. Peter has been really hush hush about the whole thing but Bucky likes to think he knows the boy well enough now to know when something bothers him to the point of panic. After all they spent nearly a month together in a cold muddy trench with nothing but each other to keep company.

The three of them enter the bar and are met with a rowdy bunch of men’s shouting about their arrival. Bucky grins and does a two finger salute to the men in the corner who are making all the noise. The guys holler for them to come and join which Bucky, Steve, and Peter are more than happy to do.

“Next round on this guy!” Dum Dum shouts over the noise to the bar tender pointing at Steve. Steve signals to the tender that he will take the next round for the men and everyone cheers.

“My man!” Morita shouts. Everyone laughs at the display of the men who have obviously been drinking for a while before everyone had even shown up.

Bucky sits at one of the empty chairs around the table and a couple of the men slap his back good naturedly. He grins at the other men and takes a hardy drink of whatever the bar tender had set in front of him. It was a weak bitter beer that tasted far too much like bread, but times were tough and he wasn’t about to complain about free beer. 

He has to pry the beer out of Peters hands when the bar tender sets on in front of the boy. Bucky fixes him with a look that he hopes conveys ‘You are not old enough to drink so don’t even think about it’. Peter gives Bucky a pouty face but never the less doesn’t fight him on the issue.

The bar is alive with sounds of happy people drinking, dancing, and laughing. There is a heavy fog that fills the room with every other man in the joint smoking a cigarette. Bucky can almost fool himself into thinking that he is back home in New York enjoying a Friday evening at the bar. 

As much as he wants to relax he finds it very difficult; there are so many people in here that it makes his skin crawl. Every couple of seconds he glances around the room to look for exists then settles his gaze on either Peter or Steve to make sure they are both alright.

Bucky tries to drink his drink and listen to the chatter of the men around him. He catches Steve’s eyes for a moment while looking over at him and Steve give him his signature confused and worried face. Bucky shrugs his shoulders in reply to his face trying to relay that everything is fine even if he is uncomfortable. 

Bucky stands hoping it will elevate some of the claustrophobia he feels, besides he knows what’s about to happen. Steve is going to ask the others to join them in the fight of their lives against the Nazi bastards who locked him and the kid in a cage then tortured them. 

As he starts to make his way from the table he catch’s the concern on Peters face, he tries to give the boy a smile to reassure him; but he knows he probably isn’t being reassuring as he thinks because he can feel the sweat trickling down his temple and his skin becoming clammy. 

He walks towards the adjacent room in the little tavern picking up a beer on his way. Sitting in one of the bar stools he nervously picks at the paper of the beer bottle. It’s quieter in the room and the lack of people soothes his frayed nerves. He can’t admit to Peter and Steve how off he has been feeling physically and emotionally since coming back from Hydra. He needs them to see how strong he still is so that they won’t worry about him in protecting them. 

He doesn’t have to strain too hard to hear Steve asking the men if they will join him against taking down Hydra. Steve is met with confusion at first from the other men but quickly enough it morphs into a chorus of yeses from everyone. 

Just as everyone is agreeing Bucky feels a small hand placed on his shoulder and he doesn’t have to turn around to know it’s his kid. Bucky has noticed that Peter becomes agitated when he can’t see Bucky or isn’t around him for too long. Not that he is complaining because he feels the same way. In his hurry to leave the crowd of men he forgot all about it.

“Pete,” he says softly in a way of greeting the boy as he slips into the stool next to him. 

“Bucky, I need talk to you about something,” Peter says looking anywhere but directly at Bucky. 

“What is it punk?” he asks the child in the same soft tone.

“I uh…I,” Peter is interrupted by Steve making his way over to the two of them with a small grin on his face. The music starts to pick back up and Bucky can hear the men take up singing from the adjoining room. Peter turns away from Bucky not finishing his thought.

“See, told you. They’re all idiots,” Bucky says spinning in his seat to greet his friend. 

“How bout you? You ready to follow Captain America into the jaws of death,” Steve asks him staring intensely at Bucky’s profile.

“Hell no,” Bucky says back looking at Steve who has a confused look on his face, “that little guy from Brooklyn who was too dumb to run away from a fight. I’m following him.”

Bucky can tell by the way Steve’s eyes light up that he is profoundly touched at his words. But even though he means every word he said Bucky can’t help but deflate the man’s ego just a little bit. Because hey what are friends for.

“But you going to keep the suit right?” Bucky says and Peter lets out a little laugh that set Bucky off and soon the two are laughing it up at Steve’s expense.

“Ha Ha. I just might keep the suit, it’s growing on me,” Steve huffs out and that just sets them off in another fit of laughter. It feels really good to laugh this much and Bucky can’t even remember when he felt this normal; laughing and teasing with Steve and now with Peter. 

As suddenly as the joy came it goes leaving them as a hush falls on all the men in the adjoining room of the pub. Bucky, Peter, and Steve all lean forward to see what has captured the attention of everyone in the bar. 

One of the most beautiful women that Bucky has ever seen in his life saunters over to the three of them. She has a fierce air about her but a touch of femininity that makes all the men stop and stare craning their necks to just get a peek at her. Dressed in a long red dress that perfectly matches her lipstick just makes her stand out all that much more in this dingy little corner bar. 

The woman walks right past Bucky without even acknowledging his presence and stops in front of Steve. Bucky watches his reaction and notices, with irritation, how red his skin is getting underneath his collar.

“Captain,” she breaths out.

“Agent Carter,” Steve says with a little grin on his face.

“Howard has some equipment he wants you to try,” she says shuffling closer to Steve and Bucky gives her a once over muttering out a soft “ma’am”. 

“Sounds good,” Steve replies tugging on his uniform in a twitchy manner. 

There is an awkward pause and Steve looks around trying to avoid eye contact with him and Agent Carter both. Bucky has known Steve a long time, long enough to know when he has a crush on a pretty dame and when said dame makes him nervous. Both of those things are manifesting themselves right now in front of him, he looks hard at the man in question trying to read his body language further.

“Looks like your top squad is preparing for battle,” she comments referencing the men who have yet again taken up howling out one song verse at a time.

Bucky bounces on his heel, “You don’t like music,” he asks grinning at the lady in a half mocking manner. He looks behind him and sees Peter trying not to laugh, what is up with him he wonders to himself.

“I do actually,” she says still facing Steve not acknowledging that it was Bucky who had spoken, “I might, when this is all over, go dancing.”

“I’ll dance with you Miss,” Peter says in a way only a child could, with unabashed innocents. 

“Well what are you waiting for?” Bucky asks now staring at the woman before him who won’t even turn to face him or Peter when they speak.

“The right partner,” Bucky’s eyes widen finally getting what was happening, “0800 Captain.”

“Yes Ma’am,” Steve says and just like she came, she left, sauntering her way out of the bar.

“I’m invisible,” Bucky scoffs and Steve turns to look at him, “I…I’m turning in to you. This is a horrible dream.”

Steve grins and goes to sit back down next to Peter as the kid just looks back and forth between them. Steve pats Bucky’s shoulder before he sits and smiles, “Don’t take it too hard pal, maybe she’s got a friend.”

Bucky narrows his eyes at Steve; he should’ve seen it coming. It’s not like they hadn’t been in this situation before, but usually it was the other way around. It stings and Bucky knows that Steve loves him that they are together; but he also knows that Steve does think Agent Carter is a pretty dame and may have a small crush. He knows he is being a hypocrite because all the times it was him flirting with a pretty gal in order to keep appearances and it wasn’t fair to Steve, but never the less it made him feel something right awful deep in his bones.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Agent Carter and Bucky getting a tasted of his own medicine. Also what's up with Peter? Wait to find out in the next chapter. 
> 
> Sorry this one is a little shorter than the other but I wanted to get something out to you guys. Next chapter will be all about HYDRA. 
> 
> until next time,  
> -AJ


	9. Sleepless Snipers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! So the next couple of chapter are kind of centered around that little montage scene in Captain America the First Avenger where the men start to fight together for the first time. Taking down Hydra bases and what not. It's all the prelude to the fall!
> 
> Hope you enjoy it!

Bucky POV  
Base after base seemed to fall at the hands of the Commandos, each new fallen Hydra compound was one step closer to stopping Dr. Zola and the Red Skull. After each new take down the team seemed to work better together as each team member’s unique skills sets shined through. Mortia with his seemingly endless supply of gadgets and even Dernier affinity for blowing things up.

The more bases they defeated the better a leader Steve seemed to become. Bucky noticed it right away, how he would listen to everyone’s idea’s and use their talents to formulate a plan of attack. Steve was a natural born leader just as Bucky had seen all those years ago on the streets of Brooklyn. 

It blew Bucky away how much Steve seemed like a super hero; like something out of one of those comic books they used to read together as children. The way Steve moved and the seer amount of strength the man seemed to possess blew Bucky’s mind every day. It was almost like that shield of his defied the laws of physics, at least that’s what Peter says every time Steve throws the thing. 

Peter was coming out of his shell a little more as well; but, Bucky could tell that there was something the boy was still hiding from him. He was sure that it had something to do with what had happened when he was taken by Dr. Zola. At least he was getting better at stringing words together around Steve and himself. A far cry from the chatter box young boy he had met back in basic training. 

The Commandos pushed on, taking down every Hydra base that Steve had seen on their map, in a flurry of gunpowder and smoke. Bucky had taken to sniping their enemies whenever the opportunity called for it. It gave him a vantage point that allowed him to see the bigger picture of the battles. It also came in handy in making sure that both Steve and Peter weren’t getting themselves into too much trouble out on the field. 

It was lucky that this day was one of those rare opportunities for him to be able to snipe from a distance. He watched through his viewfinder as the other men in the company swept through the remains of the Hydra facility.

“Parker!” Steve shouted out to the boy who was wandering to far from the man part of the compound which was unchecked for Hydra operative.

“Sorry Cap. Thought I heard something over there,” Peter muttered coming to fall in formation as the team moved further in and around the base.

Bucky was surprised that he was actually able to hear the two men talking from such a far distance. He reasoned that it was probably due to the adrenaline making his hearing sensitive. 

A plane thundered overhead, both Peter and Steve looked up to watch it go by. Distracted they must not have heard the purr of the laser gun behind them. Bucky saw the Hydra operative stand from his ledge pointing the barrel of his gun directly down on top of Steve and Peter.

Bucky’s stomach swooped as he watched the man’s gun begin to glow bright blue readying to fire directly at Peter and Steve. It was too bad for the other man because Bucky was an excellent shot.

Bringing his gun to his cheek he took a deep breath and held it; visualizing exactly where he wanted the bullet to land. Putting his finger on the trigger he slowly let out his breath and squeezed. 

The gun recoiled directly into Bucky’s shoulder but he held firm letting no movement mess with accuracy of his shot. He continued to stare as the bullet he fired hit the man across the field directly in the head. Only then does he close his eyes and beg for forgiveness for taking another life. He hopes that God understands his need to protect one curly haired boy and one selfless solider.

When he opens his eyes once more he sees Steve salute him with two fingers in thanks for watching their backs.

“Till the end of the line,” goes unspoken between the two. 

 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Peter POV

The camp they are staying at is smaller than usual, a couple tents here and a few toilets there. The necessities, or as Bucky likes to say a place to shit, shower, and shave much to the annoyance of Steve. 

They were waiting on word as to whether Dr. Zola would be heading towards the next Hydra base they had been scoping out for a while. The higher ups think that this time they might finally get the scientist and choke off the Nazi’s weapons manufacturing. 

Peter had decided that a lot of warfare isn’t the battling but rather the waiting around. It made him antsy and he itched for something to do. Steve had forced him to started running with the super solider in the early hours of the morning. 

One early morning he made the mistake of taking off to fast and leaving Steve behind with all the energy that was bubbly through his veins. The issue was that Steve was able to run for twice as long and twice as fast as the average human. Seeing Peter run like that must have given Steve a reason to think something was off with the boy, that somehow he was enhanced. 

Steve had gently cornered Peter after their run that day to talk about what had happened. Peter had decided that he needed to tell someone about his new abilities lest someone get hurt by him accidentally.

Peter begged for Steve not to tell Buck, he was waiting for the right time to tell him what happened in that room when he was captured by Hydra. Steve was reluctant to keep such a secret and Peter could tell just by the look on his face, but nevertheless he did.

Peter and Steve continued their morning runs, so early that no one would even be awake to see the two of them running at top speed. Peter could tell that Steve would try to push him harder and further every time and Peter was grateful for the release of tension that threated to strangle him all the time. 

He was grateful for Steve’s presence and understanding about what was going on with him. Peter found himself gravitating towards Steve more and more as the weeks went on. Bucky and Steve were two grounding factors that made him feel like everything wasn’t going to implode on him at any given time. Steve understood his need to be a solider and help his country; even if at first he wanted to send Peter back to New York. 

Words came easy when he was around Steve and Bucky but it was hard with others, especially strangers. It was getting easier to communicate with the other men in the squad and most of them understood he had been through a lot while captured by Hydra. A memory that he would soon like to forget. 

He often dreamed about what happened in that room; the intense smell of his flesh burning and being ripped apart and the nearly endless injections of needles into is arms. The thing that usually woke him was the sound of his own screams ringing in his ears before he would jerk awake in a cold sweat.

Peter could usually get away with not divulging the nightmares plagued him because by the time he woke many of the other men were sound asleep, so far gone that nothing in the outside world even registered to them. Peter would sit and wait for his heart rate to return to normal before getting ready to run with Steve.

That usually worked for him except for this night, with the base being so small and so cramped that all the men were sleeping head to foot with nothing but their blankets. Peter was nestled in between Bucky and Steve cocooned by the two soldiers. 

When Peter jerked awake this night he could still feel the prick of the needles followed by the cold feeling of whatever was in the syringe. He sat up quickly trying to catch his breath whimpering softly. Right away he could tell something was different from all the other times he had a nightmare. It was like every single thing around him was setting his body on fire. The way his blanket scratched his skin felt like a million bees stinging him all at once. There was a small fire in the corner of the room burning softly to keep them warm but also provide light; and yet, to Peter it felt like he was staring into the heart of the sun.

He tossed off his blanket and staggered to his feet, accidently nudging Steve a little harder than a normal human would have nudged a person. Steve sat up fast looking around for whatever threat he must have thought there was and relaxed quickly we he only saw Peter standing next to him.

“Peter, buddy, it’s too early to go running. Lay back down and get some rest,” Steve said rubbing the sleep out of eyes. Peter’s ears exploded with the sound coming out of his mouth, he knew that Steve was less than a foot away but it sounded like he was yelling directly into his ears.

Peter doubled over himself groaning and covering his ears to block out any noise. He squeezed his eyes shut as much as possible as well because the light from fire was still bothering him. 

“Peter?” Steve whispered this time. Peter guesses he must have understood something was greatly amiss with Peter. He heard the other man stand but Peter gasped and jumped away when he felt Steve’s hand on his shoulder.

Peter opens one eye just enough to get a glance of Steve’s worried expression, regardless of the fact that every sense is dialed to the highest setting he feels a stab of guilt for causing so much worry for the other man.

“Okay Pete, I’m not going to touch you,” Steve tells him barley above a whisper, “Let’s try to make our way out of the tent okay bud.”

Peter nods and lets the other man guide him out of the tent as to not wake the other sleeping men. Steve keeps his word and keeps his hands at his sides as he follows Peter out into the night. Peter feels better when he feels the cool night air on his overly sensitive skin, but he still sits down a few feet from the tent with his knees pulled to his chest and his hands firmly over his ears. 

Growing up in New York meant that even at night there was always some type of light that illuminated the skyline. Here, in rural Europe, that was not the case; in fact, it was so dark in the woods where the small base was located it was nearly pitch black when Steve and Peter made it outside. For this Peter was grateful; because, it meant that he could at least open his eyes and look at Steve who was worriedly staring down at him rocking back and forth with his hands around his ears.

“I have an idea Peter, I’ll be back in a second okay,” Steve tells him. Peter nods even though he is uncomfortable letting the other man out of his sight even for just a moment.

Thankfully he doesn’t have to wait long because Steve comes back out from the tent a couple of seconds later. He comes out carrying something that Peter couldn’t quite figure out in the darkness.

“Here let’s try this,” Steve says still whispering. Steve tries to gently pull his hands away from his head but Peter won’t let him because everything is still too loud.

“I promise this will make you feel better Pete,” Steve says attempting to pull the hands away one more time and this time Peter lets him. Steve places something soft and fluffy into his ears and everything around him gets a lot quitter. Peter lets out a shuddered sigh of relief and when Steve sits down next to him, Peter leans his weight onto the other man.

“Bucky uses cotton in his ears to make things a lot quitter when he is sharp shooting. Says that it can get real loud with the sounds of the rifle. Thought it might help you with whatever was happening,” Steve says still whispering. 

They just sit there for a while, Peter felt like a weight had lifted off his chest and his heart rate returns to normal. He was glad for the other man’s company and his willingness to just sit in silence with another human for the time being.

“I had a nightmare,” Peter says softly into the cool night air. He feels rather than sees Steve nod his head.

“You want to talk about it?” Steve asks him but with the cotton in his ears it comes through muffled. Its Peters turn to shake his head at Steve not wanting to burden the other man with his own issue when he knows how much pressure Steve is under.

“I get not wanting to talk about it. I’m the same way after waking up from a nightmare, but I’m told it’s not good to bottle everything up. I’m terrible at taking my own advice so it’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it. But if there ever comes a time when you feel like you need to get anything off your chest I’ll be there. Okay son?” Steve asks and Peter nods his head.

“When whatever happened to me in that Hydra compound, it’s like ever since my sense have been dialed to the highest setting. Sometimes it gets so overwhelming that I can’t breathe, I mean I can hear the blood rushing around in my body like its Niagara Falls,” Peter sighs and avoids Steve’s eyes by picking at his nail.

“I figured as much when you were doubled over with your eyes squeezed shut and your hands over your ears. It’s kind of like a sensory overload right?” Steve asks and again Peter nods his head but doesn’t respond with words.

They sit there for a little while longer watching as the night sky slowly turns into early morning. Peter lays his head on Steve shoulder feeling completely drained physically and emotionally. With the cool morning air washing over him and the heat from Steve’s body Peter feels himself slowly slipping into a light doze. 

“Hey, what are you two doing out here this early? I woke up and didn’t know where you guys had gone cause it’s definitely too early for a run,” Peter hears Bucky ask in a hushed voice obviously not trying to wake Peter who is still trying to fight the sleep.

“Pete had a nightmare and needed some fresh air. Sorry for worrying you Buck,” Peter could feel the rumble of Steve’s words in his chest as he spoke to Bucky.

The last thing he hears as he slips fully into a peaceful slumber is Bucky’s voice saying, “Poor kid, he’s been through so much already.” Then a soft hand was placed into his hair and the steady comfort of the two men lulled him to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone!! It's been a while right!?! Well I am back but I can't promise regular uploads :( Work and school have been really rough this semester so I am writing whenever I can. I really want to finish this story cause I love it so much. I am for sure going to finish it and it is not abandoned. I also have a couple of chapter pretty much already written so look for those coming soon. I am so sorry for the wait and I hope some of you are still with me! Give me some love in the comments if you are still interested in this story!
> 
> Until Next Time,  
> AJ

**Author's Note:**

> Hi!
> 
> Thank you for reading my story. If you liked it and want more of this idea that I had leave me a comment below or maybe a kudos. 
> 
> AJ


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